The Mercenary
by RagnellAlondite
Summary: The world is much larger than the Elemental Nations thought. A cloaked mercenary from the west has arrived in pursuit of an organization that seeks to conquer the last free lands in the world. He is determined, he is relentless, he has returned home to reap vengeance upon this organization, and uniting the shinobi nations along the way is his only hope. He is Zero. Mass Crossover!
1. Chapter 1

_AN* Alright new story! Not much content in this chapter but this just sets the stage for later down the road. Enjoy everyone._

 **Prologue**

Audio Entry #11-3-XX14

"The scout team has returned with a specimen that should be perfect for Project Shadow. Specimen, to be referred to now as Subject Zero, is a young ten year old male recently deceased from a broken neck. Could cause problems with vocalization but this is a minor concern compared to the main objectives of this project. Subject Zero has the beginning signs of malnutrition but also has plenty of muscle mass as well, likely from physical acts that are common in his homeland. Will begin experiments to resurrect him in a few hours and then begin the alteration process."

Audio Entry #11-5-XX14

"Subject Zero has been successfully revived! The serum combined with the electro-therapy has restarted his heart and his brain is showing activity already. It will be some time before the subject is capable of waking, but this is a promising start and moving along much faster than my original hypothesis suggested. An unusual occurrence occurred however upon the moment his heart restarted. As his heart began beating a red aura enveloped him, starting at his stomach and soon encasing him entirely. This was when the brain activity started. To my understanding the people of Subject Zero's homeland call this "Chakra". More experiments will be needed to compare this to other types of energy found in other parts of the world and see how it can be harnessed. Will continue to monitor Subject Zero and wait until he regains consciousness."

Audio Entry #5-5-XX15

"Subject Zero regained consciousness three hours ago. He startled the doctors overseeing him when he awoke with a scream that could wake the dead and began thrashing around as though trying to escape. Subject Zero has been sedated until we can ensure that he will not be a threat to himself or the staff. I must report this to my superiors so we can begin the next step in Project Shadow."

Audio Entry #10-22-XX15

"Subject Zero has shown remarkable growth since his training has begun. He is showing greater physical strength than expected and the treatments are only adding on to this. Mental capacities are also increasing at an astounding rate as well and we are sending for more materials to test his mental abilities and see what his limits are. He has yet to speak a word and while he comprehends orders he seem to be trying to piece together where he is and why he is here. I have him being monitored for the time being with orders to subdue him with the most powerful tranquilizers available should he become violent again, though I doubt that this will prove to be necessary. Plan on training him to harness his "Chakra" and see what he is really capable of. Hopefully our scouts have managed to acquire all the necessary materials for Subject Zero to use this power."

Audio Entry #6-1-XX16

"Subject Zero is improving by leaps and bounds. His hand to hand capabilities are astounding with both weapons and without. His mental capabilities are also equal to some of the best tacticians. He is regularly besting some of our brightest minds here at Chess and and the eastern version of it called Shogi in as few as five moves. He has also learned to harness his chakra and is capable of altering his appearance as well as changing himself out with an object to avoid an attack. He is also capable of walking on walls, ceilings and water as though he were simply walking down a street. It shouldn't be too much longer before Subject Zero is ready for mental conditioning to make him into the loyal soldier that they want him to be. Should this prove successful we should get the funding we need to perform these experiments on all of their soldiers and turn them into the most powerful force in the world. But I get ahead of myself, Subject Zero still needs my undivided attention and I must make sure that he is ready when they come for inspection."

Audio Entry #11-1-XX16

"*Cough* Subject Zero... Has... Gone berserk. *cough cough*Was ordered into... The mental override... Chamber, when he attacked. Guards *cough cough* powerless to stop... him. Already... Killed dozens of... our men and... women... in his... escape *cough*. Already... gutted me... but... he didn't... finish the job. Sloppy. Trained him better. Triggering island... self-destruct... sequence in... hopes of... stopping him... from escaping. May the gods... forgive me."

Final audio log of Doctor Hojo, found in the ruins of Levithan Bait Island.


	2. Chapter 2

_AN* Hello again everyone. This chapter will have a lot more content than the prologue so I hope to see a lot more of you around this time. Ok, one last thing is I would like to see how many of you can pick out the various references that are made in this chapter. Not mandatory but more of a curiosity to see if most of you are catching them. Ok, get to reading folks._

 **Chasing Shadows**

Sarutobi Hizuren sighed as he finalized the mission that had been sent to him, knowing that this mission could be risky if his instincts were right. As he turned to gaze out the window while he waited for the team that he had assigned to this mission to arrive his gaze turned to the Hokage Monument and the faces of those that had passed before him, particularly on the face of the young Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. It was down this path his thoughts took him, leading him to the death of young Naruto Uzumaki, his late successor's son, who had died in mysterious circumstances though foul play could never be confirmed.

"Six years..." he sighed as he remembered the somber day. It was because of this that many things had changed. With the loss of their jinchuruki he had increased security and strengthened ties with his allies, ensuring things would stay strong for the Hidden Leaf. By doing this he had prevented Orochimaru from turning the Hidden Sand Village against them and had gained the unwavering support of the Fourth Kazikage's youngest son Gaara of the Desert, the young man who was deemed most likely to take over the village when his father retired. Sarutobi was pulled from his musing as he heard the door open and Team 7 walked in. Kakashi Hatake was the Jonin in charge, though the other three were accomplished chunin, with Sakura Haruno as the medic nin, Sasuke Uchiha as their long range heavy fighter and Hinata Hyuga as their close range heavy fighter.

"Lord Hokage." Kakashi nodded as they entered.

"Team 7. What I have here for you is a two pronged mission." Sarutobi began as he made sure that he had their full attention before continuing "Your main objective is protect your client, Tazuna, a bridge builder of some renown from Wave Country who is under threat from a business tycoon named Gato."

"Gato of Gato Shipping Industries?" Sakura asked.

"The very same. He currently has the entire country in a tight spot by having a monopoly on their shipping industry and is bleeding the country dry. Your main objective is to protect Tazuna as he works on his bridge and make sure it is completed." Sarutobi explained "But this is only the first part."

"What's the second?" Sasuke asked with a frown.

"The second part is this. We believe that Gato is using Wave Country to hide his smuggling operations and is using the island to bring in illegal items from other nations. Your secondary objective is to find evidence of these operations and bring them back here so we can deliver them to the Daimyos who can then shut Gato down for good."

"What should we expect?" Kakashi asked, turning a page in his infamous orange book.

"Bandits and other non shinobi forces for certain, however Tazuna warns us that Gato has the resources to possibly hire rouge shinobi if matters look grim. Hence why this mission is marked as a C ranked with the potential to be moved up to an A." Sarutobi answered "You are to leave A.S.A.P."

"Understood." the four nodded as they left, heading off to gather their gear where they were soon leaving by the south gate and on their way to the island nation. It took most of the day to reach the shores of Fire country and as they crossed the channel they saw the massive half completed bridge.

"It's huge." Sakura whistled.

"No kidding." Hinata nodded as she activated her Byakugan "It's so wide that you can have a cart on each end and still have plenty of room for foot traffic."

"Stay focused." Sasuke muttered as he glanced around "It's likely that we will meet some kind of resistance soon."

"You're being paranoid Sasuke." Sakura chuckled.

"He has a point." Kakashi nodded "A man with Gato's influence is sure to know that someone on this island sent word to the Leaf Village, and it's safe to assume that there will be some kind of resistance to our presence here."

This silenced the pink haired shinobi as they finished crossing the water and stopped so that Hinata could check their surrounding area. As the near three hundred sixty degree vision revealed itself to her she frowned and began speaking.

"I only see one person outside right now, moving away from us." Hinata reported.

"South?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes, they are almost out of my range." Hinata added.

"Keep an eye on them for as long as you can. Let's get to our clients house." Kakashi ordered. It wasn't long before they arrived and welcomed by the old bridge builder, his daughter and his grandson.

"Thank you for arriving so quickly." Tazuna sighed as they sat at the dining room table.

"It was no trouble." Kakashi said as he sat across from the older man "We will do all we can to protect you and your family while you work."

"That's a relief. We were hesitant to send for aid at first." Tazuna admitted.

"Why would that be?" Hinata asked.

"We were afraid that you would refuse our request due to how little we could afford to pay right now. But a young traveler convinced us that it was worth the risk."

"Traveler?" Kakashi questioned, his visible eye set in a frown.

"Yes. Young man from the sound of his voice. Can't tell you what he looked like since he has this black cowl covering his face. We didn't trust him at first, at least not until he stopped a few of Gato's bullies from terrorizing one of the shops in town. Don't know what he did but there was this sound like thunder and then they fell dead." Tazuna explained. The four shinobi all traded looks before excusing themselves to talk in private about this new development.

"Shinobi?" Sasuke asked.

"Maybe but Tazuna would likely have mentioned something about hand signs." Kakashi noted "Though the follow up question is if he is shinobi is he from a village, a rouge, or a free-lance?"

"What does it matter?" Sakura snorted "If he is in our way we get rid of him, if he isn't then leave him alone."

"It's an over simplified way of viewing it but not too far off." Kakashi nodded "But if he isn't a shinobi then this raises a few other questions."

"Could he be the person I saw earlier?" Hinata inquired.

"He could be." Kakashi agreed "Until we know otherwise we need to assume that he is an enemy and potentially dangerous. Tomorrow Hinata and I are going to going to break in Gato's shipping headquarters and see what evidence we can uncover. You two are going to stay and protect Tazuna and his family. If Tazuna leaves one of you is to stay here, understood?"

"Got it." Sakura and Sasuke nodded as they divided up the watch for the night.

* * *

The next morning Kakashi and Hinata silently made their way towards the warehouse that had Gato's office in it when Hinata stopped Kakashi.

"There are three figures ahead. Two of them are fighting and the third seems to be trying to find a way to join the fight without injuring one of the combatants." Hinata reported. Kakashi only frowned as he used ANBU hand talk to signal them up to the rooftops where they could observe matters and determine what was going on. Down in the yard of the gated warehouse a cloaked figure was fighting against a man with a sword as big as he was and a slashed Hidden Mist headband. The third figure wore a white and red hunter mask from the Mist Village as well so it was likely they were trying to capture Zabuza though that didn't explain why they were hesitant to attack the cloaked figure. As they observed the fight they noted that the cloaked figure was wearing combat gear underneath the cloak and in his right hand was an odd weapon that seemed to be the reason that the nin had yet to overwhelm him with his sword. It was a metal triple-barreled, triple-cylinder weapon, ornamented with scrollwork patterns, a small dog's head at the end of each barrel and a silver three-headed dog with a wing hanging from a chain at the end of the grip. On the grip was a metal guard around a trigger that the cloaked man had his index finger on.

"This is bad." Kakashi whispered.

"What is it?"

"That man with the sword is Zabuza Momochi, a very dangerous missing nin from the Hidden Mist Village. He was once a member of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist, and is easily as strong as I am. I'm not sure who the one in the mask is but judging from their actions they are likely working with Zabuza." Kakashi explained.

"What about the other one?" Hinata asked.

"I'm not sure who he is or what that weapon is, but from the way Zabuza is moving around it and the wound in his upper left arm I'd say it is very dangerous." Kakashi admitted. The two Leaf shinobi soon focused on the fight as the hooded man avoided a swing and aimed his weapon at Zabuza who pulled back to avoid whatever it was that he planned on doing. But this was a feint as the hooded man spun under the counter thrust that Zabuza had made and punched the man in the solar plexus lifting him off the ground with the sheer ferocity of the blow. Dazed the hooded man used this as a chance to swing his weapon across Zabuza's face and sending him sprawling to the ground where he had the weapon aimed at his face.

"Checkmate." he said as he stared down at the missing nin.

"Maybe, but as soon as you fire that weapon my apprentice kills you before you can fire it again." Zabuza noted.

"Or tries to." the hooded man replied "You are not the only one who has backup. On the building across from us are two Leaf shinobi that will be more than willing to help me out."

Zabuza's eyes widened for a brief moment before suspicion took a hold and he nodded to the other who poured water from a canteen and from that water a mirror formed. Before Hinata could give a warning another mirror appeared behind them and the image of the masked nin appeared before the mirror disappeared and the nin reappeared by Zabuza.

"He's right. There are two of them up there and one of them is Kakashi Hatake."

"Damn it." Zabuza muttered as he looked at the hooded man.

"This is what I will do. Take your apprentice and leave here. Go and plead your case to the new Mizukage and get yourself reinstated as a true Hidden Mist shinobi and I will let you live."

"Why?" Zabuza asked, clearly wary of his intentions.

"Dark days are upon this land, and it will take the strength of every man, woman and child to defend it." he stated "You are a powerful man Zabuza Momochi and it would be a pity to have to kill you when you might be helpful in turning the tides."

"Ok..." Zabuza nodded as he stood up and grabbed his sword, the weapon still trained on him as he and Haku left. Once they were out of sight the hooded man turned and nodded to Kakashi and Hinata who had leapt down into the yard.

"My apologies for revealing your position like that, however I saw you up there and realized that this was the perfect way to end this conflict without needless bloodshed." he said, bowing his head in apology.

"It's fine." Kakashi said "But who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Straight to the point then. Very well. My name is something that was discarded some time ago, but you may call me Zero. As for why I am here I seek information about my prey. Gato works for them and he will likely have the information that I need here."

"Your prey?" Hinata asked.

"My prey." Zero nodded as he walked towards the warehouse doors "Luckily Zabuza and his apprentice were the only ones here. Gato was certain that they would be able to handle anyone that wasn't supposed to be here."

"Wait." Kakashi ordered as he saw Zero aim his weapon at the door and pull the trigger. There was a loud bang as something destroyed the lock on the door and Zero shoved it open.

"I have no time to wait. Every second I delay will only give them more time to get even further away." Zero stated as he walked into the warehouse.

"Who to get away?" Kakashi asked.

"I already"

"Who is your target." Kakashi said, cutting Zero off.

"Ah. I have no name for them and no one I have talked to does either. They are a shadow that plagues this world and the greatest evil that I have ever seen."

"What are you talking about?" Hinata asked, very confused.

"An organization that has already conquered every other nation in the world. Whether by stealth or war they have conquered every nation to the west of the Elemental Nations and are now focusing on this, the final free nations in the world. I am here because they are using Gato to smuggle in their supplies, and if I can learn where I can figure out what they are planning on stop them." Zero explained as he made his way through the warehouse until he reached the office and found the door was locked. Grunting in displeasure he produced a small knife and a lock pick and proceeded to pick the lock with minimal difficulty.

"How do you know that they even exist, or that they are coming here?" Kakashi asked with a frown.

"I know they exist because I am living proof of it." Zero replied as he began searching through the files and records "They defied the very laws of nature and brought me back from the dead. For two years I was trapped on an island where they tried to turn me into a weapon to be used against my homeland. In the end the created the means of their own destruction."

This earned a glance between the two Leaf shinobi as they tried to comprehend what Zero was telling them. It only took Zero a few moments to find what he was looking for before he tossed the two shinobi Gato's record book.

"I assume this is what you are here for."

"It is, but we would also like to see the documents that you are looking at as well. It could give us a better understanding of what Gato is doing." Kakashi replied.

"Of course." Zero nodded as he walked past them "To the Bridge Builders House then? I have no base of operations here yet so that would be our best location to work."

"How long have you been here?" Hinata asked.

"A few days. However I have spent that time gathering as much information as possible about Gato and his security. It's also why I recommended that they hire you shinobi, on the off chance I was overwhelmed." Zero stated.

"So you were the one that convinced Tazuna to hire us." Hinata nodded "I thought so."

"I never place all my hopes in one plan." Zero said simply. There was silence as the three of them walked back to Tazuna's home where they found Sakura had stayed with Inari and Tsunami while Sasuke had gone with with Tazuna to the work site.

"You're back! And you brought the traveler!" Tsunami exclaimed as she saw the hooded youth who nodded at her as he walked towards the dining room.

"My objective has coincided with the Leaf Shinobi. I would be grateful if you would keep everyone out of the dining room while I work." Zero remarked.

"Of course." Tsunami smiled as Zero nodded in turn as he went into the room where he began his work. For the next hour Zero looked over the documents, marking places on the map he had next to him and adding notes to the leather bound journal that he had kept in the pouch in the pants he wore. As he finished jotting down the last notes he looked up to see Kakashi staring at him.

"Yes?" he finally asked as he held the gaze of the older man.

"I was wondering what you were writing down." Kakashi said as he sat down across from Zero.

"My notes on the shadow organization, including their movements and tactics, as well any discrepancies that I noticed. Helps to keep things straight as well as connecting events that I might otherwise miss." Zero shrugged.

"And what have you noticed so far?" Kakashi asked.

Before speaking Zero slid the map and the documents over to the Jonin so he had a visual aid "What I noticed first was the items being brought over. Spears and Axes aren't that uncommon here to warrant any attention from the usual once over, but the ten millimeter munitions being brought over sets warning bells off in my head."

"What is that?" Kakashi asked with a frown.

"They're bullets used for guns, or firearms depending on where you are at, like my Cerberus here." Zero explained as he set Cerberus on the table as he soon gave a quick explanation as to how the weapon worked and how different weapons used different types of ammunition "Due to international vending laws regarding bringing technology that is far too advanced for a culture at its current state, Gato is clearly bringing these here illegally. But with this amount it doesn't make much sense unless you start adding in the rest of the facts from these files."

"Such as?"

"Such as they are also bring over cursed weaponry and armor, along with items that would be needed for a siege. Gato is laying the groundwork for the shadow organization to begin their invasion of these lands." Zero stated as he let Kakashi read over the files.

"What cursed weaponry and armor?"

"See where it says Dark, capital D? That means it used by Dark Knights, soldiers that use cursed weaponry and armor to face their foes. Generally stronger than your average soldiers, what makes them dangerous is the fact that these cursed weapons and armor make them nigh invincible except to certain types of attacks and the fact that they are absolutely loyal to whomever they are sworn to." Zero explained "Dark Knights are some tough opponents and the longer they wear these things the more it affects their minds until they are just monsters wearing human skin."

"They're from the west?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes. Usually from kingdoms less advanced then yours in some ways but more so in others." Zero nodded as he leaned back in his chair.

"So did you find any new leads?"

"One. The last shipment had a person with it, a man going by the name of Kain the Dragoon. It doesn't say where he was heading but I will bet you anything that Gato will know."

"And you want to interrogate him." Kakashi finished.

"Yes."

"If you can get away with it then go ahead. You are not part of this mission and I have no right to stop you. But if you become a danger to this mission I will personally end you." Kakashi warned, and was shocked when Zero started to chuckle.

"Kakashi Hatake I would kill you before you knew what was happening." Zero chuckled as he walked out of the room. That evening when Tazuna returned Kakashi had them all meet in their room to discuss the interesting turn that this mission had taken.

"He's not a threat against us." Sasuke finally stated after listening to everything that was said "He sounds like a man with a vendetta against this shadow organization that he's hunting. As long as we don't try to stop him he will either leave us alone or work with us."

"I don't know..." Sakura muttered "He's hiding something. I mean he hasn't removed his hood the entire time he's been here and he doesn't seem to care about anything except his shadow organization."

"He claims to have been brought back from the dead." Hinata sighed "There is no telling what kind of damage was done to him mentally or spiritually when he was brought back. This may be his way of getting peace."

"Why he does what he does is his business, but he intends to interrogate Gato for the information that he wants about his new target, and the information that he has given us is interesting if it is correct." Kakashi remarked "I want all of you to keep an eye on him, and make sure that he isn't up to something far more sinister."

The three chunin nodded their agreement with this and when they left their room they found that Zero wasn't in the house anymore, having gone to scout out Gato's mansion. He didn't return until well into the morning saying that it would be far too challenging to try and take the mansion by himself with the amount of security that Gato had around the place and he didn't want to drag them into his business.

"It would take too long to get reinforcements out here and I do not trust missing nin." He explained as he walked to the fridge and grabbed an apple "I will wait for Gato to make his move against Tazuna and then take him."

"You think that he will?" Hinata asked.

"I do." Zero replied after taking a bite of the apple "Gato is greedy and doesn't want to lose his own little kingdom. And I'm willing to bet you that the shadow organization has offered to let him keep this island as his for his efforts in taking over these lands, if not some bigger prize."

"Does everything always lead back to this shadow organization?" Sakura asked, disdain clear in her voice.

"No." Zero said as he turned his head so she could tell that he was looking at her "But there are plenty of things that do. Gato is one of them at this moment and a man like him is easily bought."

"If you say so." Sakura chuckled.

"You think otherwise?"

"I do."

"Then let's hear your theory."

"It's simple. Gato was paid to move these things in here not for some "shadow organization" but by merchants dealing under the table and trying to bring new weapons into our lands to disrupt the shinobi system." Sakura replied with a smirk.

There was silence for a moment before Zero started to laugh. It wasn't a malicious sound but it didn't bode well for Sakura's ego.

"That is a very close minded view of the world." Zero chuckled as he finally stopped laughing "How do you think I found out about Gato, pulled his name from a hat? No, I have traced lead after lead, used all the resources available to me, and had to some very despicable things to get this far. Gato is working for them, that is a guarantee, the only question is how much does he know about them."

"What "resources" could some wanderer like you have?" Sakura scoffed.

"More than you realize." Zero stated calmly "We have little presence here in the Elemental Nations due to the fact that your shinobi forces take away almost all of the jobs that we would normally take and make the others a little too dangerous. However we are known throughout the world, a band or mercenaries, thieves and assassins. We are The Guild and we are the answer to humanity's darker desires."

"The Guild?" Hinata murmured with a frown.

"So you're some punk who thinks he's all high and mighty because he's part of a secret society." Sakura sniffed.

"High and mighty? I have not been the one to look down upon another during this conversation. I am not the one who thinks that just because I am part of something that you are not that you are worthless. I have treated you with the respect due to a fellow guest in this house, where as you have treated me with disdain and scorn. You may think that you are great, but you are nothing." Zero hissed as Hinata noted that he was ready to react if Sakura tried anything violent.

Sakura was stunned by his accusation for a brief moment before she decided to prove her superiority to this scum "You and me, outside. Let's see who really is the stronger one."

"Very well." Zero stated as he walked outside, drew Cerberus and removed the bullets in the gun and placed different ones in it "I won't kill you but these rubber bullets will hurt quite a bit."

"You won't even scratch me." Sakura sniffed as Hinata stepped outside as well to watch the match.

The pair squared off against each other just before Hinata gave the signal to start the match. Sakura charged forward swinging a fist at Zero's face, who only stepped towards her, raising his right arm to block the strike while punching her in the stomach with his free hand. With Sakura stunned he pushed forward quickly punching her three times in the stomach to knock the air out of her lungs before hitting her with an uppercut that dazed her and then swung Cerberus so the barrel took her across the face sending her sprawling to the ground where he then aimed and fired a single shot into her forehead earning a scream of pain as the three bullets slammed against her skull.

"Pathetic." Zero stated as Sakura held her head in pain from the shot "I didn't even need to try to beat you."

"Impressive." Sasuke said from the rooftop where he had watched the whole thing "Seamless movements and your strikes targeted the perfect areas to disorient a person."

"Thank you." Zero nodded as he faced Sasuke "I was trained by the best."

"Oh? And who might that be?" Sasuke asked, clearly intrigued.

"Thane Krios, the world's greatest assassin."

"I've never heard of him." Sasuke admitted as he leapt down "You claim he's the best?"

"He is." Zero stated calmly "He was one of the ten most powerful members of The Guild before he stepped down to a lower tier so that a better man could lead. He is an assassin that has never failed a contract and is the one person alive that knows my true name."

"Trust him that much?"

"With my life and everything I once was." Zero nodded "Care for a spar? I promise I won't be as brutal as I was with her."

Sasuke glanced at Sakura who had gotten up and was glaring at Zero like she wanted to attack him while his back was turned.

"Fine." Sasuke nodded as he faced Zero calmly "But don't expect an easy win this time."

"I hope not." Zero nodded as he replaced the missing rounds in the gun before looking at Sasuke and nodding he was ready. Sasuke moved faster then most people would be able to follow, drawing his chokutō and swinging at Zero who shocked Sasuke by moving low to the ground to avoid the blade and pressed the barrels of Cerberus into Sasuke's stomach at an unusual angle and pulled the trigger, letting Sasuke grunt form the sudden impact that left him stunned a moment when he realized that Zero was back in the starting position, reloading Cerberus.

"That shot would have entered the rib cage and bounced around there, destroying many vital organs and likely killing you before you could be taken to a medic." Zero explained as Sasuke's eyes widened at this.

"That deadly?"

"Yes."

"Another round?"

"Of course."

This led to a series of matches between the two with Sasuke slowly improving against the mercenary but Zero still managing to deal the final blow. After more than two hours of the continuous bouts before Zero stopped and holstered Cerberus.

"This is where we will have to stop for today."

"Why? I can keep going and you don't look tired at all."

"While this is true I would rather save our strength for whatever Gato will be throwing at us next. And I would rather save what rubber bullets I have left for an actual job. They don't just grow on trees." Zero explained as he walked towards the house "I must admit that you improved a great deal during these bouts. Maybe next time you will force me to take you seriously."

"I didn't even use my Sharingan or any ninjutsu. I could have killed you with those." Sasuke chuckled.

"Unlikely." Zero remarked "But we won't know until we fight each other with no restraint."

The rest of the day passed quietly and that night Zero had remained to join them for dinner, though he still hadn't lowered the cowl the entire time, which only seemed to further enrage Sakura.

"It's impolite to not remove your cowl during diner." she finally snapped.

"If my hosts had a problem with it they would say something about it." Zero stated calmly as he sipped his tea.

"It's fine Sakura." Tsunami smiled "If he doesn't want to remove it then he doesn't have to."

"Just what are you hiding under there anyway?" Sakura remarked.

"Nothing. I simply prefer to keep my cowl up while on the job."

"But you aren't doing anything!"

"I am still on the job, even while eating. One never knows when trouble will arise and until I complete this job I will keep it in place."

"That's a load of" Sakura started to shout before Kakashi cut her off.

"Sakura!" the jonin shouted getting her to jump at the tone "It is equally impolite to start a fight in our clients home. I do not know what you have against Zero but you will cease instigating fights with him or I will make sure that you are disciplined when we return home."

"Fine..." Sakura huffed as she resumed eating. The rest of the meal was consumed in silence until Zero finished and excused himself from the table, heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked.

"I do not wish to impose on Tazuna's family anymore than I already have. I will sleep in the woods tonight and return in the morning." Zero explained.

"That's not necessary!" Tsunami exclaimed.

"Yeah! There's plenty of room here!" Inari agreed, having taken a liking to the mercenary that not only planned on killing Gato but was going to make sure he suffered before going through with it.

"I repeat, I do not wish to impose any more tonight. Thank you for the meal." Zero repeated as he bowed to Tsunami and left the house.

"That was unnecessary." Sasuke muttered.

"He was lying." Hinata replied "He is either keeping watch out there or he doesn't want us to see what he looks like under the cowl."

"Probably disfigured." Sakura muttered.

"You're disfigured!" Inari snapped as he stormed off to his room, Sakura shouting at him as he did so. The night went on silently as the shinobi each too a shift watching for trouble, with Kakashi taking first shift, then Sakura, Sasuke and finally Hinata. When dawn came Zero returned nodding a greeting to Hinata as he walked into the home. This became a patterned over the next few days as Tazuna would go to work with a different shinobi guarding him while the rest remained at the home. Zero would spar hand to hand against Sasuke where he quickly proved that he was just as deadly in that form as he was with his weapons, and on the days when Sasuke went to guard Tazuna Zero would meditate outside and Sakura would stay far away from him. After dinner each night Zero would leave again and return with the morning sun. The pattern held steady for ten days when Gato finally made his move.


	3. Chapter 3

_AN* Ok folks, here we are with chapter 3. Now I know that there were at least a hundred of you that read this story and I would really appreciate some more feedback, helps me to know what I need to fix or if you people are actually reading it. Anyways, the curiosity challenge is still there to see if you can catch the references and to anyone that does I may consider giving you a reward if you name them all in a review. Ok enough out of me, enjoy the new chapter._

 **End Of Ambition**

Zero returned earlier than usual, his eyes alert as he stopped and threw a small rock into the shadows near Tazuna's house and nodded as he heard the sound of a grunt meet his ears as he drew Cerberus, firing two shots in quick succession and letting two bodies drop while waking the household at the same time. Sasuke came running out of the house as Zero was dragging the bodies out of their hiding place and dropped them contemptuously to the ground as he started searching them.

"What are you doing?!" Sakura screeched, disgust written all over her features as the mercenary removed everything off of the two thugs except their clothing.

"Searching them." Zero stated simply as he took out a folded piece of paper, read it and then handed it to Kakashi "Orders to kill Tsunami and Inari once Tazuna had left. Likely to be an ambush waiting for us at the bridge as well."

"Agreed." the jonin nodded in agreement "We fell into a pattern and today would be Sakura's day to guard him."

"She was deemed the weakest link and Gato thought that it would be a good chance to kill Tazuna." Zero hummed "Well let's spring that trap then."

"WHAT?!" Sakura shouted. Zero only chuckled at this as he started to explain his plan.

It wasn't long before Tazuna was walking towards the bridge with Zero right beside him, arriving to see that none of the workers were present. Moving towards the center of the bridge they heard footsteps behind them and turned to see twenty armed men standing there, blocking off their path to island, and more men climbing up the sides of the bridge as well as the unfinished end, surrounding them in a matter of minutes.

"What a fool!" Gato laughed from where he stood on the unfinished end of the bridge, right behind his army of goons "It's time to get rid of this annoying little fly. MEN! There is a nice bonus to whomever kills Tazuna and his guard!"

"Gato!" Zero roared getting the short industrialist to jump at the sudden ferocious bellow "Consider this your only warning! Tell your men to stand down and tell me where the man you brought from the west is and I will let you live! Refuse and you will thank me when I kill you!"

Gato only laughed at his offer as the small army charged towards them and Zero responded by drawing Cerberus and firing twice in the span of three seconds and letting two of the men drop as he used his free hand to draw his combat knife, a blade as long as his forearm that was deadly sharp as he slashed through the first man to get too close before kicking his body into the charging men, sending a few of them tumbling while Zero turned and fired a shot into one of the bandits getting close to Tazuna who took a step forward and in a cloud of smoke revealed himself to be Sasuke, his chokutō drawn and cutting down two more men as the pair went back to back.

"Ready?" Sasuke asked with a smirk.

"Always." Zero nodded as he reloaded the nine shells into Cerberus "Try and keep up."

"I'll be sure to save some for you." Sasuke chuckled.

The pair then struck as Sasuke's blade flashed through several of the thugs, his body never ceasing to move as he let the bodies hinder his opponents as they tried to approach him. Zero's gun barked several times, bodies dropping each time that he pulled the trigger before he seemed to have finished some kind of thought and threw a scroll into the air, placing a hand to it as it unrolled and a different gun appeared in a cloud of smoke, shocking Sasuke as he hadn't expected Zero to be able to use shinobi arts. As the weapon dropped Zero holstered Cerberus and caught it with both hands. It had a white and black design with an extended part that pressed against the shoulder and was clearly meant to be held with two hands, longer than Cerberus was there was an M written in silver and 55 written in black on the side of the weapon. Zero fired the weapon in short chattering bursts, the gun shooting three times every time he pulled the trigger and each time he did a body dropped. After ten men fell Zero pulled a clip from the base of the weapon right near where he gripped it with his right hand and inserted another one before firing again, leaving another ten bodies on the ground and repeating this process until the crowd had thinned out to only a handful of men that ran for their lives, leaping off of the bridge to get away from the death dealing mercenary. Glancing over his shoulder Zero noted that Sasuke was finishing off the last of his opponents, with most of the ones left alive fleeing as well. Nodding at this Zero picked out Gato who looked pale and terrified as he turned to run towards the rope ladder that would take him back to his ship down below.

"No you don't." Zero hissed as he fired and let the three bullets tear through Gato's legs, leaving the man sprawled on the ground as Zero walked over towards the man, the gun propped up on his shoulder "I warned you." Zero the kicked the man away from the ledge where he had been crawling towards.

"Pl... Please I can pay you!" Gato exclaimed.

"There is not enough money in the world to make me forget my vendetta." Zero stated simply as he set down the gun and drew the knife "Now you are going to tell me everything that you can remember about Kain the Dragoon or I will start cutting off body parts."

Gato only blubbered something incomprehensible and Zero was not in a mood to play nice as he grabbed the man's arm in an iron grip.

"I can't! If I do they will kill me!" he screamed.

"What makes you think I won't?" Zero snapped back as he swung the knife down and removed the man's left hand, letting it fall to the ground with a spray of blood "Now talk!"

Gato was screaming in pain as Zero released his arm and grabbed the right one now and after pinning down the limp prepared to cut off the next hand, when an idea struck him and he took out a syringe filled with some green fluid in it, swishing it around as he looked down on Gato.

"I suppose that there is always poison. I can get Sakura to heal that stump of an arm and then inject you with this. You'll die slowly and in excruciating agony, as this poison destroys your body from the inside. No real cure for it either, though I suppose that there are ways to treat the symptoms but no one here in Wave Country would so much as spit on you if you were on fire so I doubt they would help you. Probably just leave you to suffer as they have, watching you die." Zero hummed as he leaned down to inject Gato who resisted furiously.

"I'll talk! I'll talk!" Gato screamed, getting Zero to stop "I don't know much about him except that he was going inland. Said he was going to talk to somebody in the Hidden Sound Village! He was wearing blue armor that covered everything except his lower face and had a spear with him! That's all I know I swear!"

"Excellent." Zero nodded as he drew Cerberus and shot Gato in the head, letting his body collapse before kicking it off the bridge.

"Why did you do that?!" Sasuke shouted "He talked!"

"He had already lost a great deal of blood, even if we got Sakura over here in the next two minutes he would not have lived long. Not after talking like that, they would have had him killed to make a point. They would have made what I just did to him look like a simple chat."

"He should have been tried."

"By who? The Daimyous would have taken too long to deliver on their justice and in the end Gato would have gotten away with a slap on the wrist compared to the suffering that he inflicted upon the people of Wave. In the end he got the punishment that he deserved and will never be able to harm anyone else ever again." Zero paused here making sure that he held Sasuke's gaze "I don't expect you to like my methods but what I do is for my final goal."

"To destroy that shadow organization? Take it from somebody who knows, you are obsessed with revenge." Sasuke remarked.

"Perhaps. But in the end it is one of the only reasons that I have to exist." Zero remarked as he walked off of the bridge "I honestly don't think I will live long enough to see them stopped once and for all but I intend to do everything that I can to make sure that whomever carries on after me will be able to finish what I have started. Nothing is more important than stopping them, nothing."

Sasuke only stared at the back of the mercenary as he walked away and realized that this man was the living embodiment of letting vengeance being the only thing keeping you moving forward. Silently Sasuke vowed to not let his desire for revenge against Itachi be the only thing that he had to live for.

It didn't take long for the news of Gato's death to spread all over Wave Country and that they were now free from his oppression. It didn't take long for the people to loot Gato's mansion and reclaim what had been taken from them and once that was finished the parties went on late into the night. Throughout the festivities Zero sat upon the roof of Tazuna's house as he jotted down more notes into his journal as he made the vital connection that he needed to plan his next move.

"Kakashi." Zero stated, knowing that the jonin was nearby.

"Yes?" Kakashi asked as he turned another page in his Icha Icha book in a nearby tree.

"I would like to accompany you back to the Leaf Village and speak with the Hokage."

"Why's that?"

"They are repeating their tactics." Zero stated.

"What tactics might those be?"

"They intend to weaken the strongest nation before conquering it themselves, a show of force that will demoralize the rest of the nations. They intend to start a way between the Hidden Sound Village and the Hidden Leaf Village."

"You're sure of that." Kakashi frowned.

"They have used this tactic many times to conquer many powerful nations. Fire Country is the strongest and also the most fertile of the Elemental Nations. By conquering this nation first they will demoralize the rest and might even get a few of the weaker nations to surrender out of fear at what will befall them if not even the most powerful nation could stop them. The shadow organization likes to divide and conquer, that way they can keep the majority of their troops for the variety of issues that may arise." Zero explained "The Elemental Nations are all that's left and now that they are so close to the end they will use tactics that they are familiar with in order to succeed."

"Interesting..." Kakashi nodded "I can take you to the village and let you speak to the Hokage, but beyond that I can't promise anything."

"That is all I ask." Zero said as he put away the journal "I will be going to rest now."

"Good night then." Kakashi said as he continued reading his orange book. The next few days went by with a massive turnout to help complete the bridge, and five days after their liberation the bridge was completed and the people of Wave Country gathered to see off the four shinobi and the mercenary that helped them so much.

"Thank you. If it wasn't for you none of this would have been possible." Tazuna smiled.

"It was our pleasure." Kakashi eye smiled "Now we must get going."

"Of course. You are all welcome here anytime." Tazuna said, still smiling at his completed work. With that final farewell the five were on their way back to the village, taking to the trees where Zero showed that he was able to keep up with them as they leapt from branch to branch. By mid-afternoon the group had arrived in the village and were making their way to see the Hokage.

"It may take awhile." Kakashi warned.

"I can wait." Zero replied as the four shinobi entered the mission hall. Zero stood by the door, his eyes moving with the practiced and unsuspectingly lazy way a predator does. He took in everything, noting hiding places, main walkways and places that the people tended to avoid which made them desirable to a man in his profession. After a few moments Kakashi came back out and told him that Hokage would see him in his office on the top floor of the tower. Zero only nodded his assent as he walked up the tower and noted that there was an ANBU squad following him from the shadows, ready to kill him if he proved to be a threat. As he reached the top floor there was a swirl of leaves as Hizuren Sarutobi appeared and stared down the cowled youth.

"So you are the mercenary that assisted my shinobi in Wave Country." he noted.

"I am." Zero nodded as he followed the aged leader into his office where he dismissed the ANBU squad.

"I must admit that after reading Kakashi's report I am skeptical of having you in the village." Sarutobi began.

"You would be a fool not to be." Zero stated "And Hizuren Sarutobi is no fool."

"You know of me then?" Sarutobi frowned.

"I was born in the Elemental Nations before my first death."

"First Death?"

"I died once before. My memory of the event isn't perfect but the next thing I remember is waking up six months later in a laboratory being trained to be a living weapon to be used against the people of this land. For a year and half they trained me, taught me to be a ruthless killer and a brilliant strategist, but they underestimated me and I learned of their plans before they could alter my memories. I escaped, but before I could sail too far away the island was destroyed, a self-destruct mechanism." Zero explained.

"I see... This is rather hard to believe." Sarutobi remarked "Do you have proof of any kind to prove your story?"

"None that you would believe." Zero shrugged "I am honest in my offer of assistance. The Shadow Organization is making their move here, and it will not be long before they send Sound against you in hopes of weakening you before they strike themselves."

"We will see about that. I am prepared to take you on your word as Kakashi has given you a good recommendation. If you have the funds then you may take up residence here in the village and I am willing to let you stay here until we can confirm the truth of your words. If Orochimaru does decide to attack us then we will be prepared and I will send you with the advance force to confirm if this Kain the Dragoon is amongst his forces. If he is then we will discuss a long term arrangement. If he is not I expect you to move on."

"We are agreed then. I do not work for free however." Zero stated "You can pay me on a mission by mission basis, as I will only be taking jobs that I can trace to my target."

"That is reasonable. I trust that you have the funds for living arrangements."

"I do." Zero stated as he turned to leave "Thank you for your time."

Sarutobi only nodded as Zero left and was soon walking the streets of the village, examining the few apartments for rent and passing them by due to the condition of them, the location, or the size. Finally Zero made his way towards the houses that were for rent and located one that seemed suitable for his needs. Zero spoke with the owner for several minutes, working out a price and after they finally reached an agreement Zero handed him the agreed upon price Zero took the key and went in to examine his new place of living.

It was a decent size with a full sized kitchen down the entry hall and a living room to the right of the door and a flight of stairs leadng to the second level to the left. Walking into the kitchen Zero noted the ample space and could already pick out a multitude of places that he could conceal weapons for emergency use. Glancing to his right he saw the door that led to the dining room and he shook his head at the thought of having enough people over to make use of the room. Turning to his left he entered a small sitting room that he decided to make into his armory as he set down several scrolls and made a mental note to purchase the appropriate racks that he needed for each weapon. Walking back to the stairs he climbed them to see the hallway with two rooms on each size. The first room on the right was a study, with a desk and bookshelves still in there already, with the second room being a small guest bedroom. The two rooms on the left were the master bathroom and master bedroom. Shaking his head Zero started the process to make the house his base of operations here in Fire Country.


	4. Chapter 4

_AN* Ok... This is a little disheartening as only two of you reviewed since my last update. Am I doing something wrong here? Seriously, let me know so I can fix it. Anyways enjoy the new chapter._

 **The Night Before**

A week had passed since Zero had moved into his new residence and he had finally finished making all the arrangements to be in the Leaf Village for any length of time. International vendors were on their way to keep him supplied, all of them bound by the International Vending laws so Zero didn't have to worry about shinobi suddenly using guns, or getting killed due to lack of maintenance. Which was exactly what Zero was doing as he sat in the kitchen and cleaned Cerberus. It was simple work and something that he did to give himself time to think. According to Sarutobi a man matching Kain's description had been sighted in Orochimaru's company, and they were gearing up for war. The spy who had brought the information had been only one of five that had been sent, so now Sarutobi was prepping his forces and preparing to engage Orochimaru and the Sound forces at the Valley of the End, the border between the two nations.

Zero was more focused on what he could do to help turn the tide of the battle, as his guns would only do so much in the long run, especially if Kain joined the battle. His mind ran through the arsenal of traps that he had and once he was certain that he could make a sizable contribution to the effort his mind turned towards memory as his gaze went down to the scar on his upper right arm where he had taken a wound fighting another officer of the Shadow Organization. Before he could reminisces any more he heard a gasp from the hallway and blinked at the noise as he turned to see Hinata standing there, the front door open behind her.

" _Dammit! Was too distracted. Master Thane would be ashamed of me." Zero mentally cursed._

"Naruto..." Hinata whispered in shock as she stared at the uncowled Zero. It was Naruto's face, aged and hardened but it was still his. The sun kissed blond hair, the cerulean blue eyes, and the fox like whisker birthmarks on his cheeks.

"Hinata." Zero sighed as he stood up and faced her, his eyes meeting hers and showing her how hard those eyes had become compared to the child he had been.

"You're alive. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't want to reopen old wounds." Zero said as he closed his eyes and shook his head in a mixture of tiredness and annoyance "I died and all of you had your time to grieve and move on. If I were to reveal myself and die in the battle with the Shadow Organization then it would only hurt everyone that I left behind again. Naruto Uzumaki died six years ago, and six months later Zero was born."

"You should have told us! We could have helped you!"

"No." Zero replied as he went back to the table and began reassembling Cerberus "I came before you with proof and Sarutobi is hesitant to trust it. Too much is circumstantial, too much can't be proved to one who hasn't seen what this shadow has done to the rest of the world. If I had revealed myself he would have had me locked up and Yamanakas walking through my mind to make sure it was really me, to make sure that it wasn't some post traumatic stress delusion. I made my choice years ago, to pursue this monster, no matter where it went, no matter the cost, and no matter what happens to me."

"But what about after? When you have beaten them?"

"Odds are I'll be dead before that can be accomplished. That isn't me being pessimistic, it's just cold hard facts. One man can only do so much to stop this behemoth. All I will be able to do is push things towards a world where the world is at peace and the people aren't under the tyrannical rule of this monster of the shadows. And if I do manage to live long enough to see this I will likely continue my mercenary ways and stay with the family I have there."

"But what about the family you have here? The Hokage, the Icharakus, all your friends?"

"As I said, they have mourned Naruto Uzumaki, the man I am now is not the boy that all of you once knew." Zero replied as he finished reassembling Cerberus "I am nothing but a stranger now, wearing the face of one they once knew. Now I assume you are here for a reason."

Hinata blinked at the sudden shift in conversation before speaking "Yes. The Hokage wants you to accompany the advance team. The team will explain the mission when you get there."

"Good. I will be ready in a moment." Zero nodded as he walked into his armory and began sealing various items into a scroll that he then placed into a pocket on his right leg "Hinata, I would ask that you don't reveal this information. I have given my reasons and despite what you may or may not think of them I do not want to reveal this to anyone. I had no intention of letting anyone know."

Hinata frowned at him as he grabbed his cloak and pulled the cowl up before speaking, slowly and clearly.

"I will not lie about this. If someone comes to the conclusion that you are Naruto Uzumaki I will not lie if they ask me. But I will not spread this around like idle gossip. I think that you should let everyone know that you are alive but this is your secret and I will respect your wishes."

"Thank you." Zero nodded as they walked to the door and locked up before heading to the Hokage Tower to meet up with Team 8, the advance team.

"So you're the mercenary that's coming with." Kiba remarked as he ran an eye over Zero "You don't look like much."

"Appearances can be deceiving." Zero replied calmly as Akamaru walked over and started sniffing him before making a puzzled sound that led to Zero scratching behind one of his ears and the giant dog's face fell into a grin.

"Huh. Akamaru doesn't usually let people scratch his ears when he first meets them, but can't argue with his instincts though." Kiba noted.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Zero. I am Shino Aburame, the leader of this mission. You have already met Kiba Inuzuka and his partner Akamaru. This is the final member of our team Yakumo Kurama."

Zero only nodded to each of them in turn before turning his gaze to Hinata "You coming with us?"

"No, just making sure that you are getting along. I'll be coming with the main group." Hinata replied as she nodded to Team 8 before leaving.

"Heh. She's a hard one to get close to, but after this mission I'll prove that I'm great for her." Kiba grinned.

"That's what you said after the last mission we had with her team and she turned you down when you asked her out." Yakumo chuckled "You like her?" she asked Zero.

"As a person she is admirable and I only have respect for her. As a shinobi she is deadly and I am happy that we are not foes. Romantically, I do not have the time for such things." Zero answered before turning his gaze to Shino "Shall we get going?"

"Yes. Our objective is to make sure that the Sound forces do not claim this side of the valley, locate and then eliminate the advance team. Anything to add?" Shino stated as they started to leave.

"Just to trap the other side. If their main army isn't close by I say make them pay for every inch that they want to take." Zero replied.

* * *

It wasn't long before they were leaping through the trees and making good time. It was only a three hour trek to the valley and once they arrived there was no sign that the Oto shinobi had crossed the valley. Crouching down Zero checked the position of the sun before taking out a scroll and unsealing a few things that would be needed for camp, while waiting to see what the others had to say.

"They aren't here yet." Kiba said as Akamaru sniffed before making a noise that Kiba nodded at "Akamaru says that they're across the valley, maybe an hour away."

"How many?" Shino asked.

"Five of them." Kiba reported.

"Simple enough." Zero stated "Can any of you use a genjutsu that can trap their sight and sound?"

"I can." Yakumo nodded.

"Good. Get me within a thousand yards of them with a clear line of sight and I can take them out." Zero nodded as he unsealed a weapon. It was a long weapon that had a scope attached to it to allow long distance shots to be possible. It was a gray color with a long barrel that had a stand at the end of it to apparently make it easier to aim.

"What is that?" Kiba asked, completely confused as to what the mercenary was holding.

"This is a M-98 Widow. One of the most powerful sniper rifles on the market. Only one model that is better than this one, but this was a gift and I am rather fond of it." Zero explained as he loaded the weapon "Only one shot before I need to reload it so I need you to maintain that genjutsu for a little bit."

"No problem." Yakumo nodded as they made their way across the valley. Kiba led the way and stopped them a thousand yards away where Zero walked up the side of a tree and once in position aimed the large weapon before speaking.

"I've got them. Five of them sitting around a fire. Let me know when I am clear to fire." Zero reported.

"Got it." Yakumo grinned as she moved closer. Once she was only a handful of yards away she started the genjutsu, using her families legendary genjutsu skills to make illusions that were so powerful that they appeared to be real. The Sound nin didn't even notice the genjutsu that came over them and once Yakumo was certain that they were under she gave Zero the go ahead. The three Leaf shinobi watched in morbid fascination as Zero fired and the head of the furthest Sound shinobi simply exploded into gore as the bullet tore through it. It only took a minute for Zero to reload, fire and repeat until all of the Sound shinobi were dead. A moment later Zero climbed down and rejoined them as they started searching through the bodies.

"They had already scouted ahead and cleared their army to come forward." Shino reported as he found their returned orders to fall back with the main force "We can now lay traps and hinder the enemy as they come to the border."

"Here." Zero nodded as he handed Shino a coil of some kind of wire "Coat your fingers in chakra or you'll slice them open. Intertwine this between the trees, it's sharp enough to cut through bone if they have enough momentum. Kiba, you and I are going to be laying land mines."

"Land mines?" Kiba asked as the mercenary unsealed a small device with a pressure sensor that the top and then handed it to him.

"Don't touch the sensor or you'll kill all of us." Zero warned as Kiba made sure to keep his hands away from the top of the device "The sensor will trigger the device, causing a small explosion at the bottom of it to make it leap into the air where it will then explode and send a blast of small metal spiked spheres out in just a little more then 218 yard radius. Dig a hole a little less the four inches deep, just enough to cover the device but not the sensor. Cover the device then move on, keep them about 109 yards apart so we have some overlay. Would be better if they were in a field but we work with what we got."

The shinobi nodded as they got to work, with Akamaru digging the holes while Zero and Kiba set the devices inside them while Shino and Yakumo were trapping the trees. It took several hours to complete the work and once they were finished it was dark and the main army had already arrived. After giving their report to Kakashi Zero moved to his own little fire where his gear was, his thoughts focused on the next day when Hinata and a few other members of the Genin 12 arrived.

"Zero." Hinata nodded as she sat down.

"Hinata." Zero replied back as he looked over Cerberus again.

"That's an interesting weapon." Tenten remarked as she leaned closer to see it "How's it work?"

"It's not all that complicated." Zero remarked "But I'm not allowed to explain it to you. Too easy for you to reverse engineer it and then we have shinobi using guns without knowing the proper means for caring for them. Then we have more shinobi dying from lack of maintenance then actually getting shot."

"That sounds dangerous." Kiba noted.

"I've seen what happens when you don't properly maintain a gun, it isn't pretty." Zero agreed.

"So where did you get that gun?" Tenten asked.

"It was given to me by the man who gave me this scar." Zero said as he moved the cloak to reveal the scar on his arm. It was shaped like a triangle with rounded corners, though the edges were jagged.

"It looks like you were shot with Cerberus." Hinata noted.

"I was. The man was an officer in the Shadow Organization, one of their commanders." Zero nodded.

* * *

 _Flashback_

Zero crouched on the rooftop overlooking the harbor where the ship was due to arrive. He had taken this job in hopes of hurting the shadow's control island's trade, and if he could stop them from sinking the ship then he would succeed. Glancing up towards the open ocean he could see the ship was approaching and if they planned on sinking it they would have to strike soon if they didn't want to stop all trade to the island entirely. Glancing back down Zero saw three figures moving along the docks, one of them carrying a large rocket launcher, meant to sink the ship at a great distance. Taking a deep breath Zero leapt into the air, exhaling as he drew the two kunai and sending them flying in to the backs of the heads of the man with the rocket launcher and the man that was clearly there to help him reload the heavy weapon. The third man turned, his red cloak billowing a he did, drawing his gun and trying to get a clear shot at Zero who was already on the move.

"Well you are inconvenient." he sighed as he took a step towards the large weapon, his metal spiked shoes clanking as he did. Zero took this moment to examine the man, with jet black hair and alabaster skin, a red strip of clothe around his forehead that was meant to help keep the long black hair out of his eyes. On his right arm was a golden clawed gauntlet that was meant to slash at opponents that got too close, as were the golden boots that he wore as well, clearly meant to stab an enemy when he kicked.

"I try." Zero replied as he moved around the man, his eyes trained on the gun.

"You realize I can't leave this job incomplete." he warned.

"You realize I won't let you live." Zero retorted "The shadow will die by my hand."

The man only frowned at him for a moment before leveling the gun in the blink of an eye and firing. With a focused bit of chakra Zero switched out with one of the dead bodies and moved to take the man's side, swinging a kunai at him. The man reacted with no visible reaction to his facial features as he blocked the strike with the gauntlet while aiming the gun at him again. Zero slid low, avoiding the shot while at the same time tripping up the man and moving towards him again with the kunai. Zero however underestimated the man as he felt searing pain in his right arm as he dropped the kunai and moved back, using the left arm to put pressure onto the wound as he glared at the man. The man stood back up slowly as he looked at Zero then out to harbor where the ship was drawing ever closer and almost past the point where shooting it down wouldn't destroy the island's economy. He glanced back at Zero and seemed to be debating something mentally as he finally raised the gun and aimed it at Zero who was prepared to substitute again.

"Well as I said, you are inconvenient." he said as he tossed him the gun and an ammo pouch "But this is your win Subject Zero."

"You know me?!"

"We met once before. I was on Leviathan Bait Island a week before you decided to revolt. Not that I blame you." he nodded as he took a step away from the rocket launcher to show that this wasn't a trick.

"Why give me this?" Zero finally asked after a moment.

"Consider it a badge of honor for pushing me back. Granted I didn't take you seriously, but you did manage to deter me."

"Who are you?"

"Vincent Valentine, commander of the Firearms Branch of the organization that you are so desperately hunting." Vincent said with a nod as he turned and started to walk away "Until next time Subject Zero. I will make sure that the others know you are alive and well."

 _Flashback End_

* * *

"He left then and there and I completed my mission." Zero finished with a sigh.

"Why didn't you shoot him in the back?" Tenten asked.

"Something told me not to try it. He probably would have continued the attack, this time getting serious and probably do serious harm to me and likely many innocents in the area. But I mainly think it was the look in his eyes when we were talking. He didn't have the look of malice that the men on the island did, his eyes were understanding and sympathetic to what I was doing. I think he may be a prisoner of sorts, somehow forced to serve them. If that is the case I doubt I could bring myself to kill him unless there was no other way." Zero explained as he finished looking over Cerberus and returned it to the holster sitting next to him.

The others soon fell into idle small talk about events back home and various other things for about an hour before Kiba and Tenten left while Hinata remained, saying she wanted to talk to Zero about something.

"Zero..."

"Yes?"

"Do you remember how you died?"

"It was no accident, I can tell you that much." he said, his tone hinting that he didn't want to remember too much about the incident.

"You were murdered." Hinata said, as though confirming a suspicion that she had all along.

"Yes. Taken from behind while outside the walls of the village. My neck snapped and made to look like I slipped while near the river where I died." Zero nodded.

"You don't know who did it though?"

"No. Unlike the Hyuga I don't have near 360 degree vision." he chuckled darkly "It doesn't matter at this point who did it or why. I have left that life behind me."

"You could come back to it once you have dealt with the Shadow Organization." Hinata argued.

"Hinata... I barely qualify as a shinobi." Zero said, holding her gaze "I don't have the same mindset as you. I have gone further abroad then any other shinobi in a long time. It's because of that I can't confine myself to such a small place. I have seen the world in all its vastness and know that there is still so much out there that remains to be seen. And my goal to hunt the Shadow Organization will likely take every fiber of my being and will likely end in my death."

"That's not right." She snapped.

"I didn't mean suicide." Zero said, holding up a hand in a placating manner "I meant that I am a living representation of what they can and will do to conquer. They brought the dead back to life in hopes of using them to conquer these lands. Even if by some great stroke of luck I manage to survive and completely destroy them there will be those that seek to take their place. My work will continue until I fully eliminate anyone that seeks to conquer this world through the point of a sword."

"It doesn't have to be like that. Once you drive them out of here you can stop, stay and live your life."

"Driving them out is only the first step. They would return with greater numbers and try again. We are the last nut to crack and they outnumber us vastly. Even if we were to kill two of them for every one of us that we lost it would still end with us being conquered, it may take ten or twenty years from now but that would be the end result. This battle doesn't end until we take the fight to them and exterminate them root and branch." Zero explained "They are willing to accept losses and have done so in the past. They have lost entire armies and come back stronger for it while their enemies are all the weaker. I cannot just stop with keeping them away from us, I have to stop them from controlling everyone else out there as well. That is why I fight now, not for bringing me back to life, not because they seek to conquer these lands that I grew up in. Because they intend to rule all with an iron fist and they do not care who they hurt to do so. I can not and will not leave all those people out there to suffer under their tyrannical rule. I have the power to fight and I will do so."

Hinata only stared at him as he spoke, explaining with such passion why he fought and why he couldn't just stop with protecting these lands. As the words came from his lips Hinata could not help but smile as she realized that behind that hardened exterior he was still the same Naruto, just one with a wider view of the world and what he wanted to protect. He still cared for people and that was enough for Hinata to let the matter be for now.

"I understand." Hinata said as he finished speaking "If that is what you really think is for the best then I will support you however I can."

Zero stared hard at Hinata for several moments before nodding his thanks to her as he leaned back on the blanket that he had laid out to sleep on, planning on getting some rest before the battle the next day. Hinata quietly said her farewell to Zero as she went back to her bedroll and thought more on Zero, trying to unravel her complicated feelings for the cowled mercenary.


	5. Chapter 5

_AN* Hello again to all of you, or as few of you in this case. Well you're not here to read my complaining about a lack of people so enjoy the latest chapter._

 **Border Clash**

The sounds of explosions and screams awoke the majority of the Leaf shinobi as the first ranks of Sound Shinobi hit the traps. Zero was moving before the first echo had faded, crouching next to one of the earth ramparts and unsealing his M-98 Widow, using the scope to see through the treeline.

"How's it looking?" Sasuke asked from near him.

"Like a vision straight from hell." Zero replied as he leaned the rifle against his shoulder "They are paying a heavy toll to get to the edge, and once they do that is when the real massacre will begin."

"This seems like a cowardly way to win." Sakura muttered.

"Last I checked you were a shinobi. Honor is an ideal that you can live without, and we aren't here as the aggressors but to defend those that are behind us. So either toughen up or get the hell out of here Pinkie." Zero snapped, getting Sakura to jump at the angry tone of his voice before she glared at him.

"I don't take orders from you." She snapped.

"But you do take orders from me." Kakashi remarked as he walked up "Sasuke, go and join up with the rest of our ninjutsuists. I want all of you ready for when they start jumping across."

"Understood." Sasuke nodded as he moved off into the middle of the army.

"Sakura, get to the rear lines and be ready to start healing any of the injured." Kakashi continued.

"Alright." Sakura nodded as she shot one more glare at Zero before starting off.

"Hinata, I want you and Neji to stay here and monitor the border. Don't move too far in case I need a quick update." Kakashi stated.

"Right." Hinata confirmed as her Byakugan activated and she started focusing on the other side of the valley. Kakashi then turned his gaze to Zero who had the scope up again as he was examining the other side of the valley again.

"Any other traps that I should know about?" Kakashi asked.

"I've got one more set up over there. But I'm saving it for when they start preparing to jump." Zero stated "After that I'm all out of tricks as this rifle won't do too much good once they start jumping."

"I see. What's the maximum distance on it?"

"More then a thousand yards. I can shot them as they start to come out of the tree line, maybe two at a time if they line up nicely and the bullet doesn't start bouncing around in their rib cage, otherwise it's one at a time. Reload time is ten seconds and with how fast you shinobi move it might as well be next week." Zero explained.

"No way of speeding it up?" Kakashi frowned.

"No. Only way would be if I had three of these rifles on me and had someone constantly reloading them as I shoot." Zero sighed "Once they start jumping I'll switch guns, and if Kain shows up I'll deal with him myself. Last thing we need is a Dragoon loose in the ranks."

"What is a Dragoon?" Hinata asked.

"Specially trained soldier. Uses pole weapons like spears, halberds and poleaxes so they have a decent range on them. What really makes them dangerous is their strength and speed. They are capable of making jumps using their own natural strength that shinobi would need to use chakra to do." Zero explained as he readied the rifle again "And that's all the time we have for Q&A, looks like they're starting to make it through the worst of it."

Kakashi nodded as he returned to his command position near the Ninjutsuists while Zero aimed at his first victim. The shot of the Widow firing rang out as the bullet destroyed the head of one of the Sound shinobi that had been about to try and jump, demoralizing the others around him as they tried to duck for cover and were pushed forward towards the cliff by their fellows. Zero only had to wait a few minutes for their to be enough bodies on the cliff that he removed a detonator from a pouch on the side of his body armor. Flicking open the cap Zero took a breath before shouting.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

As the words left his mouth he pressed the button on the detonator and triggered the several dozen explosives that had been rigged under the cliff face, blowing a great chunk of it off while ripping the sound shinobi to pieces or having them falling to their deaths amid the rubble. As the echoes of the dying screams lessened the Leaf shinobi all stared at the cowled mercenary for a moment and realized that he had just evened the odds at worst or heavily stacked the odds into their favor at best.

* * *

The Sound forces that hadn't been caught in the blast were using the tree line as cover and many had thoughts of retreating and living to fight another day, or would have if they hadn't felt the murderous intent of Orochimaru at their back who had heard the sounds of the explosion and screams ahead of him.

"The last group across that valley will be used for experimentation of my most deadly toxins." Orochimaru stated with an angry hiss that got his shinobi moving again as they knew that Orochimaru would make their suffering last for years on end before finally letting them die.

* * *

As the Sound shinobi began their charge Kakashi gave the order for the Ninjutsuists to begin their first attack, unleashing dozens of Phoenix Flower Jutsus towards the airborne enemy. The smell of burning flesh and screams of pain were heard from those that were unlucky enough to be hit by the fireballs flying across the valley, and for those three that were lucky enough to find a gap they met the fate of being taken out by Zero as the bark of Cerberus was heard three times as their bodies went limp in midair as they fell short of their targets.

Leaning back down Zero picked up Widow and examined the enemy ranks a moment before grinning. He wouldn't have the time to reload after this shot but there was a golden opportunity that he had to take. Lining up the shot Zero pulled the trigger and sent the bullet flying towards Orochimaru who had the luck of the devil on his side as one of his men happened to move in front of the shot and took the bullet in the head, causing an explosion of gore to splatter across Orochimaru's face as he moved a half step back and just avoided the bullet as it slammed into the tree behind him.

"Perhaps we should fall back." Kabuto remarked as he and Orochimaru both moved behind trees to avoid a potential second shot.

"No." Orochimaru growled as he looked over his forces "All we need is something to change the balance of this."

"Perhaps I can offer it then." Kain said as he emerged from the shadows himself "I will deal with the western mercenary that has caused you so much trouble while your forces handle getting across the valley."

"Do it." Orochimaru nodded as he signaled his own forces to begin launching their own ninjutsu counterattack and find a weakness in the Leaf defense.

Kain tightened the grip on his spear as he took off at a run and leapt up in between two fireballs as he aimed directly at Zero, getting the mercenaries attention by the flash of blue in between the two fireballs. Smirking under the cowl Zero aimed Cerberus and pulled the trigger, expecting to see Kain go limp. Instead the bullets bounced off the armor and only earned a grunt from the man as he landed and swung the spear in a wide horizontal arc at Zero, forcing the mercenary to drop to the ground as he aimed Cerberus again. Before Zero could get the shot Kain had leapt into the air and twisted in midair so the spear along with the Dragoon came crashing back down towards Zero, forcing the teen to leap to the side to avoid the attack as the spear sank into the ground and a crater formed around it and the accompanying Dragoon from the sheer momentum of the attack.

"I see you will not die quietly Subject Zero." Kain remarked as he pulled his spear out of the ground with a light spin "But your gun is of no use against my adamite armor."

"Maybe, but I'm not just a gunman." Zero remarked as he circled Kain. A moment of tense silence took them before at some unspoken signal they both struck again, moving through the ranks of the battle with the deadly kind grace that only life long warriors can achieve.

* * *

All across the valley The Leaf shinobi managed to hold a strong defensive line against the Sound forces, with volleys of various ninjutsu attacks pounding into their forces while Sound shinobi tried to return fire and give their forces a gap to enter. The problem that quickly became evident was that as soon as a small gap appeared a group of Leaf shinobi would move in with deadly efficiency and kill them while plugging up the hole as well, rendering the small advantage that Sound had gained null and void. All throughout the morning the battle continued, with the Leaf shinobi being supplied Soldier Pills to maintain their chakra and the Sound shinobi starting to falter as their chakra began to run dry. It was early afternoon when a sound came up from the valley that caused both sides to pause as they saw something coming up the river from the ocean. It was a large metal ship, a western ship from the design of it and clearly meant for battle as they could see the large guns on it's deck as well as the smaller ones that were trained on both sides of the cliff face. At the bow of the ship three figures stood, scanning both sides before one dressed in white pointed the the head of the Madara Uchiha statue where Zero and Kain were still engaged in their duel. The three pulled out grapple guns and were soon being pulled up to the cliff face when Orochimaru gave his final orders.

"Seize that ship!" He said with a malicious grin "With it we can crush their defenses on the cliff and get our own forces across."

The Sound shinobi responded quickly and died just as fast as the first few that leapt over where shredded into scrap as the smaller guns on deck fired up and ended their lives faster then a wind snuffing out a candle. By the time Orochimaru and Kabuto realized their mistake it was too late as a sizable chunk of their force had already started down and now were nothing more then floating scraps on the water that the sharks would be feasting on in a few hours.

"We need to fall back." Kabuto said "We don't have enough man power now to push an invasion, even if we were to take the field ourselves with the Sound 5."

"I know." Orochimaru snapped as he gave the signal to retreat "If that western soldier returns I want him captured and imprisoned."

"Understood." Kabuto nodded as the word was spread.

* * *

Kain paused in his assault as he saw the Sound shinobi retreating and the ship in the river, and a glare formed behind the helmet.

"It would appear that your reinforcements have arrived." Kain noted.

"What reinforcements?" Zero asked as he glanced at the river for the first time and realized that he knew that ship, as well as the three people that were now on the cliff face with guns aimed at Kain.

"I'd call it a day if I were you." the leader said as he made eye contact with Kain "You may be fast but I know how to take down a Dragoon."

Kain held his gaze for a moment until he saw the N7 on the man's upper right chest, and knew that this was no idle threat. Nodding his acceptance Kain leapt back across the valley and turned to the west, intending on avoiding the remaining Sound forces and the probable trap that was waiting for him. Once Kain was out of sight Zero holstered Cerberus and turned to the three, leaping down from the statue's head and walking towards the leader.

"Commander Shepard." Zero said as he shook hands with the leader. He was taller then Zero by a few inches, closer to Kakashi's height with close cropped brown hair and a shadow of a beard around his face. His blue eyes were alert and had already assessed everything in the area confirmed by his posture that was at ease but still ready for violence. He wore his dark blue battle armor, designed to stop bullets and bladed weapons with ease.

"Zero, you're looking well." Shepard nodded with a small smile "Glad we finally found you."

"You've been looking for me?" Zero asked, his head tilting to the side to show his confusion.

"Indeed we have. You are rather hard to track down." the woman to Shepard's right stated. She was shorter then Shepard but was just slightly taller then Zero with short blue, almost purple hair and purple eyes. She was dressed in her white uniform that hugged her bodies in ways that left little to the imagination and would distract most men, and that Zero knew was made from a blend of materials that would stop bullets fried from everything except anti-material rifles.

"You can blame Master for that, though it is good to see you again Liara." Zero chuckled, until he was hugged by the final member of the group.

"It's so good to see you again my little fox." she laughed as she held him close. Little could be seen about her due to her black and purple full body suit that included a face mask with purple tinted glass and head wrap that was attached at her collarbone.

"Words cannot begin to describe how much I hate you right now Tali'Zorah." Zero sighed as he looked at her covered face "Doing this in front of my client's forces? Really?"

"Sorry, but I haven't seen you in ages." Tali replied in a tone of voice that Zero knew that she was smiling under that mask.

"Zero, who are they?" Kakashi asked after he had restrained himself from laughing at the scene. It wasn't often that you saw a hardened warrior like that embarrassed.

"Commander Shepard." Shepard said as he offered his hand to Kakashi who shook it firmly.

"Closest damn thing that I have to a superior officer." Zero remarked.

"Kakashi Hatake, Jonin of the Village Hidden In The Leaves, and I'm in charge of the defense here. The ladies are?"

"Liara T'Soni and Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. We're all members of The Guild."

"I see. Thank you for your aid." Kakashi nodded.

"A pleasant side effect of our arrival." Shepard chuckled "Though I am happy to help those that are working with Zero."

"You still haven't said why you were looking for me." Zero reminded the taller man.

"Right. The Council of Ten needs to see you." Shepard sighed.

"My review isn't due for another few months." Zero noted.

"Normally you would have a few months, however I'm sure that you can guess why it's been bumped up."

"Let me guess. They got wind of my activities here and have decided to get this done and over with now before I am too entangled in things here and can't come see them."

"That sums it up." Shepard nodded.

"Who are the Council of Ten?" Hinata asked with a frown.

"Ten of the strongest members of The Guild, and Shepard is a member of that little group." Zero chuckled "They run the day to day operations of The Guild and make sure that we don't all wind up killing each other or slack off too much."

"Then who's really in charge?"

"We call him The First. I've never met him myself since the bastard goes off and does whatever he wants." Zero replied "Has anyone seen him recently?" the question was directed at Shepard.

"Not in a few years. He runs off to go do whatever it is that he does and leaves us to manage things." Shepard nodded "Now we better get going."

"You do realize that I need to inform my client." Zero remarked.

"Right. How long do you need?"

Zero hummed in thought for a moment before speaking "I'll meet you tomorrow morning at the harbor on the southeastern corner of Fire Country."

"Sounds like a plan. Gives Joker a chance to resupply." Shepard nodded "Try not to keep us waiting too long."

"I won't." Zero agreed as the three of them moved back towards their grapples.

"Goodbye my little fox!" Tali called out.

"GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I SHOOT YOU TALI'ZORAH!" Zero roared in anger as he heard Tali and Liara start to laugh as they slid down their grapples.

"Are they always like that?" Kakashi asked after a moment.

"No... It's usually worse." Zero sighed in defeat.

"How do you know them?" Hinata asked.

"My Master is a part of Shepard's crew and thus so am I. And they are the closest thing to family that I have." Zero chuckled "They irritate the hell out of me sometimes but I know that they always have my back if things get bad. Kakashi, I'll need to inform the Hokage that I will be leaving for a short time."

"I understand. All that's left here it make sure that there aren't any stragglers and checking our own forces. We'll be back by this evening. Go and inform the Hokage." Kakashi nodded.

"Understood." Zero nodded as he sealed up his remaining gear and then took the trees. It took a few hours to get back to the village and upon arriving in the Hokage Tower was informed that he was in the middle of a meeting with the representatives from various parts of the village. After informing the secretary that he needed to speak with the Hokage as soon as possible he sat and waited while the woman walked into the meeting room.

* * *

Hizuren was on the verge of putting a kunai threw the civilian who was rambling on about putting a tax onto some shinobi goods to help fund some civilian project and going about it in such a roundabout way that the old leader was at the end of his patience. As the door opened and his secretary handed him a note informing him that Zero was outside and waiting to speak with him he decided that enough was enough.

"Denied." Hizuren said, cutting of the man who blinked in shock before sitting down "Now if you will excuse me there are shinobi matters that I need to deal with."

"What could be more important then running this village?" one civilian huffed angrily.

"Word has arrived from the border and I will need to take this message in private. That will be all." Hizuren stated firmly.

"If I may inquire, who is the messenger?" Danzo Shimura asked.

"How is that of any concern?" Hizuren frowned.

"If it is one of our shinobi they won't mind stepping in and passing it along quietly and if it is the mercenary that you have hired then I believe that there is a matter that involves him that the civilians wanted to discuss."

"Yes there is. He has"

"Enough!" Hizuren shouted, stopping the man in his tracks while Hizuren looked to the door "The messenger is Zero, and if it will solve this matter he may enter and solve your issue now before we adjourn and I deal with the real reason that he is here."

That seemed to placate the villagers as the door was opened and Zero walked in.

"Lord Hokage. I trust that I am not to give my report here." Zero remarked "Far too many ears in this room."

"No, your report will wait. The Civilian Council has an issue that ties directly with you." Hizuren sighed "It would expedite matters if you would address their concerns."

"I see." Zero nodded as he waited for the civilians to begin.

"It is in regards to a group of vendors that are arriving from overseas. They have informed us that they will not be able to sell their entire stock to us unless we have certain licenses that have been approved by them." the man explained "This is quite frankly ridiculous."

"I am sorry that you feel that way but I do not make these laws." Zero replied calmly "The vendors that I have made contact with are all bound by the International Vending Laws, that were passed some 150 years ago. They are in place to ensure that nations that do not understand the use of and dangers of the weapons do not suddenly have them appearing in their nation and unleashing anarchy. The punishment for a vendor that breaks these laws is quite severe and is recognized in more then 15 different sovereign nations."

"Then perhaps a different sort of arrangement can be made."

"No." Zero replied as a hint of anger appeared in his voice "What you are likely about to ask is for me to purchase the weapons for you and my answer is no. And I should warn you that these vendors are under the protection of The Guild, and if someone in this village were to attempt to rob them, The Guild would be honor bound to destroy the nation that allowed this to happen. And while you may think that your shinobi forces are impressive The Guild is home to some of the worlds greatest assassins, snipers, and ex-military personnel. This village would be crushed in the span of 2 days, with the nation falling in the span of a week once we leveled our full might against you."

"The matter is settled then." Hizuren said, ending the discussion and standing up "Dismissed for today."

Many civilians muttered angrily as they looked at Zero who simply waited for the Hokage to start for the door and followed him up to his office, noting that as he started to leave that Danzo had been keeping a close eye on the mercenary and likely trying to find a loophole into getting the guns that Zero favored.

After locking the door and activating the privacy seals Hizuren turned to Zero and nodded for him to begin his report.

"The defense held and we have dealt a heavy blow to Orochimaru's forces. I don't have total casualty reports for either side, with ours not being completed once I left and the Sound forces being in too many pieces to identify with any certainty." Zero began "I confirmed that Kain the Dragoon was among Orochimaru's forces and it appears that he was the one that convinced Orochimaru to invade, likely by offering his own aid in the matter. It's what I would do."

"I see." Hizuren nodded.

"The final push that broke Sound's back was the arrival of the Normandy, a battleship used by a member of The Guild that I work alongside. He came seeking me out with news that I must return to The Guild for my review."

"Review?" Hizuren frowned now.

"It is a regular event every two to three years. Every member of The Guild has their activities for the past few years examined and if they are showing considerable improvement or growth they are promoted to a higher rank and in certain situations given better access to information. Where as the opposite is true as well, where if you have shown a considerable drop in your work over the past few years you can be demoted and cut off from certain areas. It's meant to ensure the we remain productive." Zero explained.

"How long will this take?" Hizuren frowned.

"It's about three days from the southern shores of Fire Country to The Guild's headquarters, at least it is for the Normandy. So six days in transit there and back, and a few days there to get the review over with and resupply myself, as well as seeing if there are any other new leads." Zero mused "Give me two weeks and I'll return."

"I see." Hizuren paused there as he seemed to be mulling over a thought before he finally spoke "You have operated in good faith with us and if most of The Guild is like this I believe that a partnership of sorts would be beneficial."

"What did you have in mind?" Zero asked.

"I would like to send a representative to speak with your higher ups and see if an alliance between us would be possible. Allow your members access to the Bingo Book and let them start hunting down rogue shinobi as well as giving them access to our excess mission scrolls." Hizuren explained.

"Payment would need to be worked out as well as an alternate solution in case missions are scarce." Zero added.

"True. Do you have any preferences as to who will accompany you?"

"I would prefer Hinata Hyuga. With her Byakugan I don't need to worry about her getting lost or having to watch her back. Not to mention she is from a noble family and is likely to have been trained to negotiate in a high stakes environment."

"Very well then. Once she returns from the border I will inform her." Hizuren nodded.

"Send her to my place. We leave as soon as possible." Zero said as he bowed to the Hokage and headed back to his house to gather his gear.


	6. Chapter 6

_AN* Hello to all of you once again. this took a little longer then I thought it would but there was a lot to double check and go over. Now please enjoy and leave a review at the end, I am curious as to what you all think about this story._

 **The Guild**

It was early evening when Zero heard the knock on the door and found Hinata standing there with a pack on her shoulders.

"I was informed that I would be joining you on your trip to The Guild to negotiate a treaty." Hinata remarked as Zero grabbed his own back that had been sitting by the door.

"That's right. There was another reason that I didn't tell the Hokage, which is because you have seen my face." Zero replied as he stepped out of the house and locked the door behind him.

"So you can take the cowl off and not have to worry about someone else telling the Hokage." Hinata summarized.

"Exactly. If we leave now we can be about halfway there by full dark." Zero noted. Hinata nodded her agreement with the plan as they made their way out of the village and south towards the waiting mercenaries. By the time they finally stopped it was too dark for Zero to keep going forward and he knew that trying to do so would be reckless.

"We can stop here." he said as he set his pack down.

"I can keep going." Hinata noted.

"I can't. I don't have eyes that let me see in the dark." Zero countered with a laugh as he sat on the ground, his back to one of the trees. Hinata only sighed as she shook her head at his remark and gathered some wood for the fire. Once they had the warmth of the small fire and had eaten some of their rations Hinata started to ask Zero about Shepard and his companions.

"So why wasn't your master with Shepard?"

"Either he was out on a job, or the message reached Shepard while he was out on one with the girls." Zero replied "Shepard has one of the largest groups in The Guild and thus the odds of my master being with him were slim."

"How many are members?"

"Nine of them, though there are quite a few that have moved on to do other things that Shepard keeps in contact with in case he needs the support."

"Have you met them all?"

"No, but I have met most of them." Zero replied as he went into his pack and pulled out a small sealing scroll, where he soon was unsealing a photo that he handed over to Hinata "This is one of the only photos that we had taken, when Shepard decided that he wanted us all to have something to remember us all by that wouldn't require an insane amount of mementos."

Hinata looked at the photo and took in all of the different faces of the people in it as Zero began explaining who each one was with a finger pointing to them in turn "You've already met Tali, Liara and Shepard but I can show you the rest and tell you who's with The Guild and who isn't. The big hulking brute in the back with the arms as thick as trees and the shaved head is Urdnot Wrex. He used to be a member but retired to go and rule over his clan. His replacement is called Urdnot Grunt, and while he isn't as big as Wrex he is just as strong and a bit faster. The tall woman standing next to Wrex is Samara. She's a Justicar, a fancy name for someone that is given free reign to track down criminals and kill them if they resist. She isn't part of The Guild but has a working relationship with Shepard and has a great deal of respect for him given his morals. The one on the other side of Wrex, with the silver hair and purple eyes is Garrus Vakarain. He's one of the few that can say that he's been with Shepard the longest. He's a master sniper and has the moniker Archangel, given the fact that he has a habit of tracking down crime syndicates and putting bullets in them. The woman standing next to him, with the shaved head, tattoos and giving the middle finger to the camera is Jack. She's a powerful bitch and has a temper to match, but if you get close enough to her you can tell that she is still a bitch and won't hesitate to rip you in half."

"You're joking." Hinata said in horror.

"Kind of." Zero admitted "She's powerful in the sense that she doesn't have any morals and won't hesitate to do what she wants when she wants. But if you can befriend her she will fight to the death to help you. Shepard was the first person to treat her like an actual person since she was really little, and hence why she stuck around with him and joined The Guild."

Hinata nodded at this and made a mental note to not piss this woman off.

"Anyways the last person in the back standing next to Samara is known as Legion. He's where I got the cloak thing just so you know. Only Shepard has seen him without it. He's a good shot with that sniper rifle of his and knows what he's doing in a fight but he generally stays out of things. He represents a group of people called the Geth. Not much known about them except that Tali's people despise them for driving them from their homeland centuries ago."

"Why did they do that?" Hinata asked.

"Not sure and I haven't asked. There are always stories like this and I doubt that I will ever learn all of them or begin setting them right. Tali and Legion do get along to a degree though." Zero remarked.

"Then there might be hope to bring peace between them." Hinata said.

"There's always hope." Zero nodded "Now onto the front row. You can see Shepard there in the middle, with Liara on his right. On his left is Miranda Lawson. Smart, powerful, and a stuck up bitch sometimes. She was part of an organization called Cerberus for awhile, but left to keep working with Shepard once she realized how much they went against her views on the world."

"Why were they called Cerberus?"

"No clue to be honest. Though there are myths about a giant three headed dog guarding the afterlife in some religions, hence the dog heads on the barrels of my gun." Zero explained nodding towards Cerberus "Continuing on, next to Liara is me."

"You're so young." Hinata gushed.

"This was taken not long after I joined them, so I was about 13 at the time." Zero nodded "And next to me is my master Thane Krios."

"He's not what I expected." Hinata admitted as she looked at the man.

"And that's why he's the best damn assassin in the world." Zero chuckled "He was originally on the Council of Ten but stepped down so Shepard could take over. He could get the job back at any time he wanted but he knows that each member brings something unique to the table that is needed to lead The Guild so that's why he remains at Tier 3 Rank 1."

"Tiers? Ranks?" Hinata frowned.

"The ranking system of The Guild is done in Tiers and then Ranks. Tier 1 is The First, he is the official leader of The Guild and is in charge of everything that goes on. Though most of the time he doesn't get involved unless he thinks it's important. Below him is Tier 2, and there are ten of them. They run the day to day operations and have access to most of The Guild's resources. There is very little that happens that they don't know about. After that is Tier 3 with 100 members, Tier 4 with 1000 members, Tier 5 with 10,000 members, Tier 6 with 100,000 members and Tier 7 with 1,000,000 members." Zero explained "I'm at Tier 4 Rank 2."

"So The Guild has over a million members in it?" Hinata asked in shock.

"More then that technically. There are a lot of smaller splinter groups that manage themselves but keep a member in The Guild to keep things friendly. If the entirety of The Guild were to go to war we would have an army numbering somewhere in the hundred millions." Zero elaborated as Hinata's jaw slackened slightly at the sheer size of the number "Anyways before we get even more sidetracked let me finish showing you everyone that way you can at least recognize them when you see them. The man with the dark skin next to Miranda is Jacob Taylor. Good guy, and a former Cerberus operative as well, though he left before Miranda did. Mainly due to the part that he only joined up with them to help stop a threat against some innocent civilians. Next to my master, the pale guy with the red hair shaped into those weird looking spikes is Mordin Solus. Insanely smart, I mean this guy makes a Nara look slow. Tends to ramble a bit but he is a great guy. Helped design a lot of the gear that Shepard's crew uses and helps The Guild to design weapons, armors, medicines, you name it odds are that he has some ideas on the matter."

"That's impressive.

"He is. Though again he rambles quite a bit, though he does have a very good singing voice." this got a chuckle from Hinata who couldn't really imagine such an odd looking man being a good singer "Then finally next to Jacob is Tali. That's just about everyone that works with Shepard now."

"That's quite a few people." Hinata admitted.

"There are more but Shepard had to leave them behind when he turned criminal and stole the Normandy."

"He stole his ship?!" Hinata gasped.

"Yeah..." Zero nodded "He didn't want it to come to that, but in the end he realized that his nation was going to fall due to the fact that the shadow organization had already corrupted a few key individuals that made it impossible for them to continue to fight."

"You mean..." Hinata trailed off.

"Yeah. There is a reason that I stuck with Shepard's crew for so many years. They are all technically criminals in their home nations due to the fact that they are now controlled by the shadow organization. When I first told Shepard that I hunted them he only looked at me and started to laugh before looking at my master and saying "This kid is definitely one of us." I didn't understand at the time but I later learned that all of them had lost something to the shadow organization just like I had, and they now help me however they can."

"Why don't they join you more often?" Hinata asked.

"They will when the time is right." Zero answered calmly "But for now they need to lay low, especially after the blow that they dealt to the shadow organization before I met them, before they lost their homes."

"What happened?"

"I'll let Shepard tell it. He knows all the details and cane explain it far better then I can." Zero sighed as he put the picture away, but not before taking one last look at it with a hidden smile.

* * *

The rest of the night was spent in a quiet companionable silence between them as they soon slept and awoke with the rising sun. They reached the port just after nine in the morning and found that the Normandy was already loaded up and they were just waiting for them.

"There you are Zero." Shepard remarked and then frowned when he saw Hinata "And you brought your girlfriend."

Hinata turned a shade of crimson at the remark as Zero replied "She is coming with us to work out a treaty with The Guild. Get us some more footholds here and let us start hunting down some of their rogue shinobi."

Shepard nodded and motioned for them to come aboard. Hinata was stunned at the size of the vessel and how it was possible for something made of so much metal to float. As her gaze took everything in she felt the ship start to move as they sailed away from the coast and out to open waters.

"How is it moving?" Hinata asked as Zero lowered his cowl and let his blond hair out into the light.

"The power source is below, near the bottom of the ship." He began as he then explained how it powered the entire ship including the propellers under the water that gave the ship it's forward momentum.

"Though that doesn't do it justice." Shepard chuckled as he walked over "The Normandy was the fastest ship in the Alliance Navy, able to outrun any frigate, destroyer and Dreadnought out there. Only boats fast enough to catch her are so lightly armed and armored that we can destroy them with ease."

"I heard from Zero that you had to steal the Normandy." Hinata noted.

"Had to be done." Shepard sighed "I didn't want to betray my home, but I didn't want everything that I had done to be for nothing. I had already spent two years fighting against the Shadow Organization and I wasn't going to let them win that easy."

"Two years?" Hinata repeated in shock.

"Yeah." Shepard shook his head "There's a lot to explain if you really want to understand why I had to steal the Normandy."

"Plenty of time to tell it." Zero remarked "It's going to take us a week to get to The Guild. Feel free to tell her if you want to, since I've heard it all before I'm going to go below deck."

With that Zero turned on his heel and was walking towards the door that led below the decks.

"Well since we have the time." Shepard nodded, his gaze locked on the cerulean waters "Best way to start is by explaining what my home was like. The Alliance is a group of nations that banded together to make a larger unified whole and keep control in their section of the world. The nations are Sol which is my home nation, Tuchanka where some of the most powerful warriors hail from, Thessia which is Liara's home nation and are renowned for their diplomats and their skill in Biotics, Kahje which is a nation that has a lush coastal region and a harsh desert just past that which supports two co-dependent tribes called the Hanar on the coast and the Drell in the desert, Sur'Kesh which is home to some of the most brilliant minds ever known and finally Palaven which is a more militaristic nation and generally fills the role of peacekeepers in our union.

Each of these nations are independent but also dependent on one another. And while we aren't much larger then some of our neighbors or more advanced then them we banded together to make it so we can live somewhat peacefully compared to other nations in our area. In order for this union to really work though each nation sends diplomats to an island city called the Citadel where they will discuss and make international laws for the Alliance as well as host other nations that would like to form alliances with us or broker trade. However with each nation still being sovereign to itself there would be a need for international peacekeepers, who wouldn't be bound by international borders or laws in any nation among the Alliance, as well as given diplomatic immunity so they could perform their duties as needed, no matter how bad they may appear at the time. They would only be answerable to the council of ambassadors and would thus be the perfect international police force, in theory at least.

The task force members are called Spectres and I was a member of this group for a time. Though my initiation was a trial by fire due to one of our members going rogue and trying to help the Shadow Organization take over. This was how I got the original Normandy and formed my first crew together, though of that group only Liara, Tali and Garrus remain. In the end we managed to stop him and we began preparing for the invasion that was sure to follow afterwards, but it wasn't as cut and dry as we thought it was going to be. The Shadow Organization had an entire sea faring nation under their command, one that was just slightly more advanced then we were, just enough to put us at a perfect disadvantage. They attacked the Normandy while we were out on patrol, hoping to kill me and weaken the resistance that they would face when they began the real invasion, and they almost succeeded.

I was luckily saved by a Cerberus vessel and they helped me recover. They didn't want the Shadow Organization taking over either it seemed and while I was recovering they built this Normandy and helped me gather a new crew to take down the Collectors, the sea faring nation I mentioned. Almost everyone I recruited from that group came with me to The Guild, with a few exceptions, and all of them have earned my trust a hundred times over. It was a tough campaign and in the end we committed something that was almost considered genocide. We wiped out the Collectors as they had returned to their island nation to prepare for their invasion of the Citadel. We launched our surprise attack and managed to trigger an explosion in their island's power source that wiped out all of them, and nearly killed us as we escaped.

In the end this bought us some time, and showed the Shadow Organization that they couldn't come at us with brute force. That was why they went with a completely different approach. They assassinated the original council members and then had their puppets take their place. Once they were in power they claimed that the Shadow Organization didn't exist and that it was just war mongering rumors and we could all see what was going to happen next. In the end I decided to do the only thing left, and stole the Normandy, taking my crew and those would crew the vessel with me. I left a few good people behind when I did this though, and they all promised that they would do what they could to stop the Shadow Organization but we all knew what was going to happen. In the end I joined The Guild at Thane's recommendation who was already a high ranking member at the time and from there he stepped down so I could take his place at the Council of Ten."

Hinata listened silently as Shepard explained his story, likely keeping it shortened to save time, but the expression on his face was one of sorrow and loss as he seemed to be remembering all of the good people that he had lost or had to leave behind in order to keep fighting against the Shadow Organization. This was when Hinata realized in full what kind of battle Zero had against the Shadow Organization and why he chose to work the way that he did, to avoid having that same type of look on his face one day.

"I have some questions." Hinata remarked.

"Go ahead and ask. Just don't be surprised if I ask a few of my own later." Shepard warned with a grin.

"What are biotics?"

"You could call them telekinetic abilities." Shepard explained "It's a power that many in our lands have developed and use them for combat and other things. The people of Thessia are all biotics and are some of the strongest that I have ever seen, though there are other nations that have a much lower count in biotic users then others."

"Is your own quarrel with the Shadow Organization the reason why you've helped Zero so much?"

"Partially." Shepard admitted "I mostly did it because of Thane. He saw something in him, something that he thought was important and I am inclined to agree. The prime example being that Zero is one of the youngest members of The Guild."

"I didn't know that." Hinata blinked.

"Well he joined when he was thirteen, and here we are three years later. If things in that meeting go like I think that they will he will likely be getting promoted and have access to better resources."

"Is there that much of a difference?"

"There is. Tier 3's have access to some of the more restricted files and are also allowed to be in touch with some of the more knowledgeable information brokers." Shepard nodded "It's been a slight wrinkle between him and Liara a few different times."

"Why's that?"

"Liara runs the largest and most well informed underground network. Started doing that after I almost died and finished it not long after we destroyed the Collectors. Anyway Zero has asked her a few different times for information, particular;y when he hits a dead end, but she always tells him that she isn't allowed to since he isn't ranked high enough yet." Shepard elaborated.

"I can imagine how that turned out." Hinata sighed "He's always been a stubborn one."

Shepard glanced at her with a raised eyebrow but decided to file that information away for a later discussion.

* * *

Down in the port side bar Zero was currently nursing his drink as he mulled over his course of action for what to do when he returned to the Elemental Nations.

"Little early to be drinking isn't it?" Liara asked as she walked in.

"Maybe, but it's fire in the afternoon somewhere." Zero replied as he sipped his sake "Impressed you managed to get sake on her."

"Joker thought it would be a nice change of pace and Edi didn't object." Liara said as she sat down next to him "I heard you brought someone with you."

"Yeah, Hinata Hyuga. She was at the battle."

"Why her?"

"Come on Liara, you know better then that." Zero chuckled as he looked at her "You want information you need to trade for it."

"I suppose I can simply ask her then." Liara grinned as Zero shot her a look.

"I'm not going to ask for anything crazy, just your personal opinion on a matter." Zero sighed.

"Fine, you first then I will answer your question." Liara agreed after a moment.

"Deal. I brought her at the order of the Hokage, my client. But I requested her because she has seen my face already. You know that the Village Hidden In The Leaves is my hometown, and people would recognize me if I went there without the cowl. She walked into my residence, saw me without it, and then realized that I was alive. I chose her to come along that way I minimize how many people see me from my hold home and that way minimize the risk of someone trying to force me to stay there once I'm finished."

"Though I take it she is trying." Liara mused.

"A few times but she respects my decisions each time." Zero nodded "My turn."

"Alright."

"Since you know just as much about the Shadow Organization's movements as I do I want your personal opinion on the matter. We just repelled their favorite tactic of divide and conquer, which means that they need to fall back to their secondary strategy. Problem is that they have a few of those that they have used in the past and it brings up the question of how and what they will do. The two most likely options are going to be to try and give a smaller more localized show of force against the Leave Village and thus demoralize them before the real assault, and then continue on as if their first plan had gone off without a hitch, or they are going to bring their full might to bear against the Elemental Nations and just crush them one after another, regardless of the losses." Zero explained.

Liara frowned in thought before speaking "Personally I think it's going to be the localized show of force. They have never liked to go for an all in bet before and now that they are this close to the finish line they are more likely to go with a lot of smaller bets to take them down piece by piece. However there is the chance that Kain wasn't the only one to be prepping a force against the Leaf Village."

"Maybe, but I didn't find any other leads for the Shadow Organization going to the Elemental Nations. Gato was it and he only brought Kain. So unless they have other merchants under their thumb then they would have had to be using their own ships and those would be spotted by harbors very quickly." Zero mused.

"It's a starting point." Liara agreed. Before more could be said the door opened revealing a woman standing there dressed in a silver full body suit with her hair a matching color and an orange visor over her face.

"Zero, if possible Commander Shepard would like to see you up on deck." Edi remarked.

"OK sure." Zero nodded as he got off the bar stool "Thanks for the talk Liara."

"Of course. I will come with you and see what Shepard wants." Liara remarked as she followed the young blond up to the deck where Shepard was waiting, minus his usual body armor and weapons.

"Zero, it's been awhile since we had a good spar. Let's see how you're holding up." Shepard remarked as he motioned for Zero to come and face him.

"Think you can keep up old man?" Zero laughed as he leapt the railing and removed his cloak, body armor and weapons.

"I'll manage." Shepard chuckled as they prepared to fight.

* * *

"Will they be OK?" Hinata asked as she stopped by Liara.

"They'll be fine." Liara promised "Shepard and Thane do this with him whenever he is gone for any length of time. They want to make sure that he is staying in peak condition."

"I see." Hinata nodded as Tali walked up.

"Twenty credits on Shepard." Tali stated with a chuckle when she saw the two about to fight

"I'm not taking that bet." Liara countered.

"How much is a credit compared to ryo?" Hinata asked.

"The conversion rate would come out to about 89 ryo." Tali said after a moment of thought.

"You're on." Hinata stated as she reached into one of her pockets and took out the amount of money specified. Tali only laughed as they focused on the two men who had finished stretching a bit and were now ready to spar.

* * *

Zero made the first move, moving quickly to get in a series of punches that Shepard moved back to avoid before side stepping and trying to grapple and use his larger mass against the younger man. Zero only ducked under the grab before sweeping Shepard's legs out and going for a quick punch aimed at his chest that knocked him back into a roll where he got back up with a grin on his face. Without hesitation Shepard moved forward, jabbing at the blond who deflected a few blows before his eyes widened when he saw the knee about to hit him and he knew that there was no way he could dodge it without putting him in a worse position. Tightening the muscles in his stomach he let the blow hit and then went slack around it so his head smashed into Shepard's, causing the commander to step back muttering curses as Zero moved back as well, shaking his head to clear his vision as he grinned at Shepard who returned the grin as they clashed again.

* * *

"He improved." Liara noted as she watched the two continue to exchange blows.

"Is it always this close?" Hinata asked.

"No Usually Shepard has the upper hand but I guess that my little fox got tired of always losing to Shepard." Tali chuckled "Just makes the wager more interesting."

"Until you lose." Hinata grinned. Tali only laughed at this before they saw Zero dodge a strike and land a powerful punch to Shepard's stomach that knocked him off balance and Zero wasted no time in pressing the advantage for all he was worth. Shepard only rolled with the blows, taking minimal damage before there was a glint in his eyes as he grabbed the next punch and pulled Zero into an arm lock.

"Give up?" Shepard asked.

"Bite me." Zero replied as he cringed in pain before forcing his body to drop and pull Shepard to the ground with him where he tried to break free of the arm lock but settled for using his legs to lock Shepard in place as well. The two stared at each other for a few moments before they started laughing and released their respective holds.

"You have been practicing." Shepard praised as he rubbed the forming bruise on his stomach from the last major punch Zero had landed.

"I take what you and Master say to heart." Zero replied as he massaged his sore arm "Didn't see that arm lock coming."

"That's why you didn't win." Shepard shrugged.

"So when are you going to start taking me seriously in these spars?" he asked, getting a look of shock from Hinata.

"When you finally manage to beat me like this. I'm not an N7 for nothing." He reminded the blond.

"I know. But the more I spar against you and Master the better I get."

"True as that is you need to know your limits and not push yourself too far. You are already way stronger then almost anyone you could name."

"Not in the Elemental Nations." Zero sighed "I am outclassed their since I know so little about how to use my chakra."

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked with a frown.

"I was only taught exercises that they thought would be useful to me. Henge, Substitution, wall and water walking as well. They never taught me anything more then that, always saying it wasn't needed and that I only had to be a master in these arts." Zero explained "They probably would have taught me those other things after I was reprogrammed."

Hinata frowned at this and decided to file the information away for later and see what she could do to help him.

"Well let's grab some lunch." Shepard said as he walked towards the ship, with Zero's stomach growling loud enough for the others to hear he thought that was a good idea.

* * *

The entire trip was quiet with clear weather that allowed Zero and Shepard to continue to spar on the decks when they were bored, allowing for different bets from the various crew members, particularly the helmsman Jeff "Joker" Morue. Hinata was friendly with the man who rarely left the bridge due to the fact that his legs were crippled.

"It's fine. Put me at the helm of any ship and I can make her dance. Just don't ask me to dance or you'll hear my bones snapping." He had laughed when he had showed her the controls and how he worked the Normandy.

By the afternoon of the third day they approached a rather large island that was home to The Guild. It looked like a mountain was growing out of the water with it's rocky shores that went straight into mountainous terrain. Spread out along the rocky faces of the island were caves that were large enough for ships to sail right into the inner workings of the island.

"Only ships can get here?" Hinata asked.

"Pretty much." Zero nodded "This island is easily defensible due to the fact that we can close the cave entrances at any time and we have large supplies of food and fresh water, easily enough to feed the entire Guild and all of the supporting members for more then six months."

"That's incredible."

"The Guild hasn't always been favored by various governments and we have been attacked by several different navies a few different times. What helps is the fact that we are so well armed and prepared for trouble that they often decide that we are too tough a nut to crack and give up before we really have to start righting them off." Zero explained as they approached the mouth of one of the caves "There are hundreds of docking points but right now we are heading for the private docking point for Shepard since he is a member of the Council of Ten."

"Closer to the meeting point?"

"That and it's much faster to disembark when you don't have to wait a few hours to be checked in along with the general masses." Zero added. Once they were docked and disembarking Shepard nodded for the two of them to follow him as they walked through the caves, lit by lanterns at set intervals that gave the cave system plenty of light. After a few minutes of walking through the various passage ways they arrived outside of a door where a man was standing. He was taller than Shepard by a few inches with long white hair that almost reached the floor. He wore all black and had a sword that was almost as long as he was tall.

"Ah, Shepard. I see you managed to locate Zero." He nodded as he walked over and smiled at Zero "It is good to see you again my young friend."

"A pleasure to see you as well Sephiroth." Zero nodded "Allow me to introduce Hinata Hyuga of The Village Hidden In The Leaves. She was sent by their leader to broker a treaty between them and The Guild."

"Ah. It is a pleasure to meet you my dear." Sephiroth nodded to her as Hinata nodded back "You will of course have to forgive us, but we need to settle matters with Zero first before we start working out the details of this treaty."

"Of course." Hinata replied "I will be remaining here with Zero until he is to leave."

"Plenty of time then. Shepard, let us prepare for the meeting."

"Right. You two wait out here. We will call for you when we are ready to see you." Shepard said as he walked into the meeting room. Zero only nodded as he took a seat at one of the benches where Hinata sat next to him and waited for him to speak first.

"That was Sephiroth, Tier 2 Rank 1. He is in charge of the Council of Ten, and is a mater swordsman and mage."

"Mage?" Hinata frowned.

"Think ninjutsu without the need for hand signs. Instead you study books and scrolls for a few years until you gain an understanding of the spell and then you can cast it with a few spoken words that will trigger the spell. He is a dangerous man and I consider it luck that I befriended him."

"How did you do that?"

"Killed his father." Zero stated as he saw Hinata's eyes widen at this "Well not directly. His father was the lead scientist that brought me back to life, and brought about his death. Sephiroth despised his father what he did to his mother and for committing experiments on him while he was still in the womb. Only reason he knew who his father was is because his mother showed him photos of the man. He is actually a lot older then you would think, mainly due to those experiments."

"So who else is on the council?" Hinata asked after a moment of letting that information sink in.

"You'll see them as they go in. There is only one door into the room and we are sitting right in front of it." Zero explained as the sound of metal boots striking the stone floor resounded down the hallway. A moment later they saw the man approaching the doors, they were as tall as Shepard and were dressed in full armor that had spikes in various lengths with all of them curved upward or inward depending on where they were. The armor was a gray color with a fiery red color under it, giving it a very demonic appearance as the person walked into the room.

"That was Dovahkiin. Means Dragon Born in the old tongue of his land. He is a skilled mage, knowing dozens of different spells and is also a master weapon user. Give him swords, axes, knives maces, bows and he can use them and likely kill you in a few dozen ways." Zero explained "No one knows if Dovahkiin is a guy or a girl since they always wear that armor but no one denies that Dovahkiin will kick your teeth in if they so much as think that you deserve it. I was actually there when he beat his predecessor to be Tier 2 Rank 2. Used a strange magic that had him shouting at the person as different things happened. First one set the guy on fire and sent him flying back a few feet. Second one seemed to speed him up but I think that he managed to slow time down as he struck. Final one seemed to enhance his weapon that he used to take the guy's head."

"That's kind of terrifying." Hinata remarked.

"No kidding. Master said that if he ever had to kill him he would shoot him with a sniper rifle from a few miles away." Zero chuckled as the next person approached. He was as tall as Sephiroth with short blond hair and scar on one side of his face. He was dressed in a long gray coat over clothing that a pastor would wear.

"That is Father Alexander Anderson, also known as The Paladin. He represents a never religion that has come about in the last few centuries, though I don't know too much about it. I do know that he was experimented on so he has an extreme healing ability. I mean I've seen his arm get shot off and it just grew right back. Was creepy as hell. Personally I don't interact with him very much since every time I do he is always asking me if I went to heaven and saw his God. Gets annoying after awhile."

"Is he a strong fighter?"

"Has to be to be part of the council. He's good with blades though he prefers bayonets for close quarters as well as using them as throwing weapons. He's a tough one but he has a good heart behind all of that is always willing to invite you to come and pray with him, though he doesn't care much for other religions. The Guild made it very clear he was not to shove his beliefs onto anyone else. He's at Rank 4 due to the fact that he is next to impossible to kill and he is pretty good with tactics as well."

"So who is she?" Hinata asked nodding towards a blond haired woman wearing black and red leather armor with a knife at her hip. As she walked towards the door she shot Zero a glare that only got a smirk in turn.

"That is Astrid, representative of the Dark Brotherhood, a league of assassins that has ties with us. She is ranked number five. She doesn't like me much since she got shown up by Master years ago."

"What happened?"

"I'll let Master tell about it." Zero answered "She's good with blades and poisons, and is the second best assassin in The Guild. The woman walking up now, that's Edea. Powerful sorceress." The woman was a dark haired beauty wearing a black dress that had a large raised section on the back that provided a dark backdrop for her pale features.

"Sorceress?"

"Same thing as a mage really, except she has focused her entire life onto the craft and she knows some crazy powerful spells. Only person that can match her in sheer magical power is Sephiroth and even then if the duel is just magic based she might beat him." Zero added "She's number six."

There was a brief lull before they saw the next man walking towards the door, a shriveled old man with a katana at his side.

"That is Nurarihyon, like the monster back home. He is a master swordsman and has instructed a lot of members here on it's finer points. He also has a special magic that can either allow him to disappear from your senses entirely or to still be there but your attacks pass right through him like he's a phantom. He's number seven though he says that he is just holding this position until his grandson is ready to take over fro him." Zero nodded towards the Nurarihyon who nodded back as he entered the room as well, just as the next members approached "The two blondes walking this way are Samus Aran and Anya Stroud, numbers eight and nine respectively." Samus wore an all blue jumpsuit with a pistol at her left hip and her long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail. Any was almost her opposite with her short cropped dirty blonde hair, a than top and fatigues, while on her back was a rifle that had a sereated chain going inside of the gun.

"Bot of them are very dangerous and I personally would never want to go toe to toe with them without massive preparations. There are some rumors that Samus is actually in possession of some very advanced tech and only uses it on special jobs but I don't put much faith in that. Anya on the other hand is a war vet who fought against an invading nation for years and to the point where both sides were essentially wiped out. She's one of the few survivors of that war and with the rest of her unit off doing their own thing." Zero explained as he nodded his respect towards the two woman. Samus only ignored him while Anya nodded back with a small smile as she walked into the meeting room as the last person came jogging out of the hallway. He was dressed in a black suit with an orange tie and his brown hair was unruly and standing off of his head in a crazy fashion. On his hands were a pair of metal gloves with two giant gems in them while on his left hand middle finger was a large ring.

"Finally we have Tsunayoshi Sawada, number ten in that little group. He's also the tenth head of the Vongola mafia family that keeps the peace in a few different countries. They cut deals with the Shadow Organization to try and make it easier on their people but they have no love for them either. Those gloves of his are his weapon and it's said that he can manipulate some kind of magical fire and use it to fly, but I think that's just a rumor personally."

As Tsunayoshi ran into the room Hinata spoke "They are all so different."

"Have to be. Each of them brings something unique to the table and gives insight to various issues. It's why The First doesn't run things really since he would be to biased depending on his roots. These ten hold their position by being the best of the best and they know that they can lose it if they aren't careful, so all of them train diligently and make sure that they can stay in their spots to keep The Guild safe from those that use it and abuse our purpose." Zero explained. Hinata only nodded as this as they sat in silence while they waited to be called in. After close to an hour of waiting the doors opened and they were called inside. In the room was an almost round table with only a small opening fro someone to walk into the center and be seen by everyone. Zero calmly stopped at the center of the room where Sephiroth began to speak.

"Zero, Tier 4 Rank 2. You have been summoned here for your annual review. I understand at this time you are under the employ of one of the shinobi villages in your former homeland. Is there anything to add to that account that we should be aware of?"

"There is." Zero nodded "The first of which is that the leader of the village, the Hokage, has sent one of his shinobi here to negotiate a deal with us so that we may have a firmer foothold in the Elemental Nations, for the purpose of hunting down rogue shinobi." this was met with muttering from around the room which Zero let continue for a few moments before he resumed speaking "The second is that I have been hired for the foreseeable future to help defend Fire Country and by extension the entirety of the Elemental Nations from the threat of the Shadow Organization that has already conquered the rest of the world."

"Is that wise to oppose them?" Edea asked with a frown on her face at the thought of angering such a powerful group.

"While my quest is personal I am at the service of the village I am working for. Should they seek to make a formal complain of the matter there are plenty of laws that can be used to explain this and if that does not work than write me off and keep The Guild alive and well." Zero stated calmly getting a few murmur of assent at the idea.

"And how is this arrangement established?" Astrid asked.

"I work on a mission by mission basis, meaning I am paid for my services as any other shinobi would be. As per our rules one tenth of my total earnings will be sent back here to pay for the expenses that are incurred by my membership."

"That's more then we would normally get." Tsunayoshi noted.

"Only if I were to be getting those jobs through The Guild. Since I am getting them through my client The Guild is due a larger sum of money as per the standing agreement in Article 11, Section 3, Paragraph 8." Zero list off shocking a few of the members with his knowledge of those facts. The members were soon talking quietly among themselves before Sephiroth spoke.

"Very well then. I move that Zero be promoted to a Rank more fitting of his abilities and knowledge. All in favor?"

"Aye." Shepard said immediately.

"Aye." Anderson said with a nod.

"Aye." Tsunayoshi agreed.

"Aye." Anya stated.

"Aye."Nurarihyon chime in. There was a moment of silence before Sephiroth nodded.

"Very well then. The motion passes. Zero will be promoted to a new rank." Sephiroth stated "Now which on would be more fitting for him then?"

"Rank 77." Dovahkiin said, their voice reverberating through their helmet and ensuring that no one could tell their gender "The man at that rank is due for a demotion due to his lack of achievement in his latest jobs and his wasteful spending as well."

"You mean Mercer Fray?" Astrid asked with a frown.

"Indeed. The man is a braggart and has not done a single job worthy of his rank in years." Dovahkiin nodded "If Zero is to be promoted then let him be put there and settle two issues at once."

"77 is a good placement for him." Shepard agreed "It's a higher rank and will allow him the respect that his abilities have earned while not putting him so high as to make him arrogant."

"All in favor of this?" Sephiroth asked and was met with unanimous agreement "Very well. Summon Mercer Fray at once so we may inform him of this and he may decide on whether he will simply step down or fight for his position."

A runner was soon out the door and heading to find the man.

"While we wait, perhaps we can begin discussing this treaty, get the starting of it done." Anderson offered "No sense in sitting around and wasting the Good Lord's light."

"Very well. Madam, if you would step forward." Sephiroth said as Hinata now moved into the center of the circle and Zero stepped off to the side to allow her the floor.

"Thank you." Hinata said with a slight bow "Lord Hokage sends his regards and while he has his own personal doubts about your organization, Zero has worked with us in good standing and he has decided that a partnership of sorts would be mutually beneficial."

"How would this work exactly?" Astrid asked with a frown.

"The Guild would be allowed access to the resources that the various villages use to track and rate the various rogue shinobi across the Elemental Nations. You would be allowed to track down these various men and woman at your own leisure and collect the bounties on them from the Hidden Leaf Village, for the time being."

"Why only that one village?" Samus asked "There are five great shinobi villages and many smaller ones. Why not allow us to to go to the nearest one and collect the bounty there?"

"We cannot speak for the other villages recognizing this. We could try and have the Hidden Sand Village join in on this agreement but we make no guarantees that this would be possible." Hinata replied.

"And what is the standard rate of these rogues?" Sephiroth asked.

"That depends on their skill level, rank upon defection from their home, and what they have done since they have left. For example, a chunin from the Hidden Cloud Village who was average in abilities upon his defection and has some small notoriety in the more rural areas of Lightning Country would only have a bounty of a few thousand ryo, where as a renowned jonin with a very expansive skill set and a flee on sight order in one of more countries may have a bounty ranging from single digit millions to the higher end of the double digits depending on how many counties he is feared in and if the flee on sight order was issued during war time or peace time." Hinata elaborated, and various members of the council were nodding at the explanation.

"We would have access to the information regarding these traitors?" Anderson asked.

"Yes, though I cannot promise that we will always have the best information on the matter. Generally the best information on these rogues comes from their home village as they will have known the target and can give a better grasp on their skill set."

"I see." Anderson nodded "This would help establish a better foothold for us in those god forsaken lands."

"Anderson." Shepard warned.

"I didn't mean anything by it." he said, holding up his hands in a placating manner "I was just saying that this would help The Guild."

"Agreed, but the problem that I see in the matter is transportation and lodging." Anya pointed out "We have only a handful of bases and all of them are on the western coast."

"A problem that would need to be remedied before we could really begin." Tsunayoshi nodded "Miss Hinata, would we be allowed to purchase property in Fire Country for the use of The Guild?"

"As long as you pay for it and pay the land taxes to the Daimyou then there is no reason as to why you could not, but the Hokage would have to give his approval."

"We would need to send someone to examine these various places." Edea stated.

"Why not Zero?" Astrid asked with a sneer aimed at the young man "It's not like he has anything better to do there."

"The lad is working for the local leader, he will have plenty of work to do on his own!"Nurarihyon snapped, causing Astrid to jump at the tone he had taken, and only had used a handful of times "Don't take your petty rivalry of the lad's teacher out on him or we will have words Astrid."

Astrid glared at the older man before Shepard spoke up "I can easily take my crew and examine these various places."

"Why you?" Anya asked "There are plenty of others that we could send."

"I'll be heading there to take Zero back to Fire Country to begin with." Shepard replied "No need to keep him from his work by adding weeks of travel time onto it. And since I am the most recently removed from the military I know how to choose good defensible buildings that will be able to handle anything that these shinobi could throw at us."

"I see no reason against this, but Fire Country is larger than you should be handling on your own." Sephiroth stated "I would prefer if a second member of this council accompanied you."

"Then I'll go." Any offered "All of my work has been handled for now and I share a similar military background with Shepard."

"Very well then. You will have the authorization to finalize the agreement with Lord Hokage." Sephiroth nodded.

"Understood." Shepard and Anya replied.

"We thank you for this opportunity Miss Hinata and we hope that our partnership will be beneficial to both of our groups." Sephiroth smiled as Hinata nodded her head to the man again as the doors were opened and a man walked in. He was dressed in black leathers and from where Hinata was standing she could tell that he had been drinking, and recently if the smell was anything to go by. At his sides were a sword and a dagger, clearly meant to be shown off from the golden metals that were used in the pommels.

You summoned me?" He asked, a sneer in his voice.

"We have." Dovahkiin stated coldly "Due to your lack of achievement and poor performance on your jobs over the past few years we have deemed you unworthy of your position."

"What?!" Mercer Fray roared.

" **SILENCE!"** Dovahkiin shouted, causing the room to shake as they all felt the magic that would be released if Mercer did not shut his mouth. Once a moment had passed Dovahkii continued "It has been decided that Zero will be taking your position."

"I invoke the old laws!" Mercer shouted now "By right of combat I can keep my position!"

"It is your right." Nurarihyon nodded "But do you really think that wise? Just take the demotion with some dignity."

"No." Mercer snapped "If this little shit wants my spot he can take it from my cold dead fingers."

"If that is what you wish." Zero shrugged " Where and when?"

"Tomorrow morning in the arena. I want everyone to see your shame when I kill you." Mercer sneered before storming off. The council all traded looks before nodding for Zero and Hinata to leave.

"Do you think you can beat him?" Hinata asked.

"He's arrogant and holding on by the skin of his teeth. Makes him dangerous but he is no Vincent Valentine or Kain the Dragoon. That spot is mine."


	7. Chapter 7

_AN* Hello again. Now I know quite a few of you were probably stunned at the sheer scope of the crossover, but I did warn you all in the opening chapter that it was going to happen. It was either that or have hundreds of OC's running around and I wasn't to fond of that idea. Now, please enjoy the chapter and leave your reviews at the end._

 **Advancement**

Zero was soon leading Hinata through the halls, giviner the general layout of the isnald as they walked. It was a complex maze of caves and passages, some natural and others mand made. Hinata knwe that she wouldn't get lost as easily as others due to her Byakugan but it still helped to memorize where things were to minize the sue of it. As they stopped outside of a large cavern Zero spoke.

"This is our dining area, or more specifically this is where various merchants sell cuisne from around the world. Nothing in The Guild is free and only those who are employees here are given free food and lodging due to the innumerable services that they provide us." Zero explained as they walked in and the smell of different spices and foods wafted over them "Anything in particular that you'd like for dinner?"

"Not really. As long as I can get a cinnamon roll alter I will be fine." Hinata admitted with a light blush on her face for admitting her guilty pleasure where it came to food.

"Cinnamon rolls huh?" Zero chuckled "We all have our preferences. I used to love ramen but after trying a few other cuisines there are quite a few that I am partial to now. There is a baked goods vendor further in that should have cinnamon rolls but for now lets get some food."

Hinata nodded as she followed him to one booth that was selling meat served inside a piece of what hinata thought was flat bread. They soond sat down and Zero motioned towards the man, speaking quickly and placing two orders of food that was quickly being put onto the flattop that the man was cooking on.

"What is this?" Hinata asked with a frown.

"Something I tried in the Alliance. Master isn't as fond of these as I am but you can thank Jack for putting me onto these."

"What are they called?"

"Tacos you dumb bitch." A voice said from behind them and Zero turned with a grin to see the heavily tattooed member of Shepard's crew.

"Jack." he laughed as he stood up and traded fist bumbs with the girl who laughed before slugging his arm playfully.

"Been too long Zero." She laughed as she sat next to him "Liara mentioned you were back. Who's she? You finally decide to pick up a ho?

"Ho?" Hinata asked with a deepening frown as she suspected that it wasn't a polite or endearing term.

"Hinata calm down. Jack, play nice with my client's envoy." Zero sighed.

Hinata only glared at Jack who stared at her before cracking a smirk.

"I like her. She's got some backbone to her." Jack nodded as she motioned of the man to start making more for her "So what's going on? Word is that there is a duel tomorrow."

"That there is. I am going to be killing Mercer Fray and taking his rank." Zero nodded "Not much of a fight but his rank will be of great assistance."

"Yeah, now I won't have to listen to you bitch when Liara tells you no about information." Jack laughed.

"So what rank are you Jack?" Hinata asked.

"Tier 3 Rank 5. Be higher if my strategy involved more than just blasting the shit out of fuckers." Jack replied "That stuck up bitch Miranda never let's it drop that she outranks me even though I can kick her snobby rich bitch ass across this island a dozen times over."

"True as that is she wouldn't walk into a straight up fight with you, and that is why she outranks you." Zero countered "I wouldn't walk into a straight up fight with you, hell I'd snipe you from a few blocks away with armor piercing rounds and probably shoot you through the head and heart to make sure that you're dead."

"Aw, you're so sweet." Jack gushed before laughing. It wasn't long before the food was served up and Hinata watched as they used the shell to hold the meat, onions and some type of plant that Hinata had never seen before inside of it. Imitating them she managed to only drop a little of the meat and Jack nodded her head in approval. There were several helpings served before Zero nodded and the man copied down his information to remove the money from his account.

"Is that how all transctions work here?" Hinata asked as they said their goodbyes to Jack who said that she wold let Thane know that Zero was back.

"Pretty much. Easier than having all that money on you all at once. The Guild has it's own bank here on the island and the accounts are registered to one particular person. Though in the case of the old laws when I take someone else's rank by combat like this everything that they have becomes mine. So while Mercer Fray spends way more then he takees in he is likely to have some items that I can sell off to increase my own funds." Zero explained.

"So you get paid by the jobs you complete?"

"Along with a regular wage." Zero nodded "Kind of like how some waitresses get tips alongside their paychecks. We get the majority of our money from various jobs that we perform though depending on our rank we get paid a set amount of money. At the moment I get a montly payment of about 900 credits. This is roughly the amount of money that one would need to live off of in almost any nation once you factor in the conversion rate. When I get promoted that number will change to 2000 credits a month."

"And if my math is right the conversion of credits to ryo is about a one to five ration." Hinata stated.

"You did a good job of remembering that." Zero nodded "It pays to know what the conversion rate of various currencies is. Since every nations has their own form of currency you need to know what the ratio is for a lot of different nations or have someone that you can trust be able to do it and hope that they don't get greedy and decide to short change you."

Hinata nodded at this as they walked for a bit, working off the food before stopping to get a cinnamon roll for Hinata who just smiled as she started to eat it. They walked for a little while longer before Zero turned down a series of corridors before stopping at a plain wooden door. He took out a key from one of his pockets, unlocking it and then walking in, leaving the door open for Hinata to follow after him. Inside was a spartan looking apartment with a small bed, a table with a few chairs, a chest of drawers by the bed with a lamp and a photo sitting on top of it, and a couch near the coat rack that Zero draped his cloak on.

"Come on it. These are my quarters." Zero stated as he walked towards the table and sat down. Now that she was inside she could see that there was a closet on one of the walls that she hadn't been able to look at from the doorway and another door that led to the bathroom.

"I guess you aren't here often." Hinata noted as she made another cursory glance over the room.

"No. In genreal most members of The Guild are only here for a short amount of time before heading out again. I've spent a lot of time here when Master was training me, though he did take me out on jobs with him quite a bit." Zero replied as he had his journal out again and was looking over his newere notes "Only ones that are here on a regular basis tend to be the Council of Ten and some of the lower ranking members waiting for a job that they can handle."

"Can't they take any job that they want?" Hinata asked.

"Sure. We don't have a heavily defined job system here like back in the shinobi villages. You can take any job that you want to take, however if you're a tier 7 and you are trying to take an S rank job we will likely warn you against it. And that's not to say that we don't have multiple people taking the same jobs. Sometimes we have as many as a dozen different people taking the same job and they will either wind up helping each other complete it or they will wind up killing each other." Zero chuckled.

"How do you even get the jobs?" Hinata asked.

"We have contacts scattered through each nation. Each one will keep a special meaans of gathering jobs and sending them to us to be handled. In nations where we are welcome and the ruling body is kown to hire us we will have an open place where the people will come to us and hire our services, these will then be sent to us by ship and then someone will take the job and head back. In nations where we are not welcome our envoys must be more stealthy. They will spy on people and wait for rumors to reach them about potential jobs beforem aking contact with whomever the person is in private. Or they may run a legitimate business but have a special symbol on the door or on their sign that will let people know that they are the enyoys and that jobs gan be given there. It various from nation to nation. And then there are people like me that travel too much and thus we get the jobs as we go. The law states that I have to send back a larger sum of money to The Guild because I'm not going through the offical envoys but this makes up for it and keeps us running."

Hinata blinked at how complex this place was and realized just how much work the Council of Ten really had to do and hoped it wasn't too much of an inconvenience for two of their member to be away for such a long time. Ther was silence for quite some time as Zero poured over his journal, starting to copy it into another journal that he kept at The Guild's island. As he finished writing he nodded and looked to hinata who had been busying herself by reading one of the books that had been sitting near the couch.

"You can take the bed tonight."

"What?" Hinata asked, confused as she had been focused on the book.

"The bed. You may sleep in it tonight. I'll take the couch."

"You have aduel in the monring and need to be well rested before it. All it takes is one mistake and you could wind up dead." she countered.

"Perhaps, if I was anyone else. I was trained by Thane Krios and it will be a cold day in hell before I die at the hand of some fool like Mercer Fray." Zero laughed.

"Again, all it takes is one mistake and you could be killed. I am not going to sleep on the bed so that's final." Hinata stated bluntly as she and Zero began staring each other down. They held each others gaze from across the room for a time before Zero finally sighed and broke eye contact, laying erberus near him on the nightstand as he started to remove his boots.

"Fine then." He said as he grabbed the blanket and covered himself "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Hinata replied as she resumed reading for another hour before dimming the lantern and going to sleep as well.

* * *

The next morning she awoke to Zero emerging from the bathroom hving already performed his morning rituals and was donned in his usual gear, grabbing his cloak as well.

"What time is it?" Hinata asked.

"An hour before dawn. The duel is in three hours but I wanted time to eat and mentally prepare myself." Zero stated as he moved towards the door into the hall.

"I see." Hinata nodded as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and quickly went into the bathroom to make herself presentable and was soon following behind Zero who led the way towards the arena, and into a small group from Shepard's crew.

"Master." Zero said, bowing to the man who stopped and smiled at him. He was dressed in black pants with a handgun visible on his left leg under his black coat. He wore a sleeveless shirt with straps of some kind, likely meant to adjust it for the wearers comfort or discretion, and his skin was a tan color, likely being pale from not being in the desert anymore, with short slicked back hair that had been dyed a lizard like green.

"Zero. I've told you that you don't need to call me that." Thane smiled as he moved forward and placed a hand on Zero's shoulder "You are no longer a student and have made much progress."

"Thank you." Zero said, and Hinata could tell that those words meant more to him than anything in this world.

"I see your brought a friend back from your old home." Thane remarked as he focused on Hinata "I am Thane Krios, Zero's former teacher."

"Hinata Hyuga. Zero has spoken very highly of you." Hinata smiled as she bowed towards him as well.

"I'd hope so." Jack chuckled "Little bastard starts trash talking Thane the world might be ending."

"Easy there Jack." Jacob said as he walked up "Don't give blondie there a reason to put a bullet through your head." He was shorter than Thane, closer to Jack's height with dark skin, short hair and beard with an assault rifle strapped to his back. He wore a blck and yellow designed light weight battle armor meant to defend against bullets and blades through clearly not as strong as Shepard's was "Zero, you win and first round of drinks is on me."

"Only the first?" Zero asked with a grin "Who's buying the rest?"

"Likely me from all the money that people are betting." Grunt laughed. He was as tall as Thane thoguh he was much more muscled, wearing white armor with no sleeves on it, a shotgun on his back. His hair was cut short and a gravel gray color along with the short little point of a beard he had coming from the center of his square jaw "Though the odds aren't if you win, it's how long it will take you to kill him. Odds are that it takes you more then five minutes to kill him."

"So if I kill him in less than five you get all the money?"

"Aim for two." Grunt replied "That gets me the majority of it."

"Got it." Zero nodded as Thane shook his head.

"Of all the habits that you picked up it had to be gambling." Thane sighed "Drinking I could live with, but gambling."

"Blame Shepard for taking me out to that casino in Alexandria. You remember, the time I came back with over a hundred million credits and was banned from that casino for life." Zero chuckled.

"Yes... I remember that trip." Thane nodded "I will need to remind Shepard to not take you out gambling in the Elemental Nations."

"Please, I'll be too busy killing people to be gambling." Zero smirked. This earned a few chuckles from the group before Zero started to head towards the lower level of the Arena, leaving Hinata with the four member of Shepard's crew.

"Come on, I want good seats." Jack exclaimed as she grabbed Hinata's arm and dragged her towards the spectators area. Hinata blinked in surprise but saw that Grunt, Jacob and Thane were also following. As they arrived they saw that there were lots of people there already but Jack just grinned as she held up a blue glowing hand and blasted a few people from their seats in the front row, sending them flying to the side and causing a domino effect.

"Move it fuckers!" Jack roared as she marched down to the front "Anyone still in my way when I get ther is getting blasted into the ceiling next!"

"Jack I don't think that's a good idea." Hinata tried to argue.

"It's fine." She laughed as she took one of the seats in the front row, the others were soon sitting down as well, silencing Hinata's arguments.

"So how long until the duel?" Hinata finally asked.

"We got about an hour. Hence why Jack wanted to come early. If she had arrived later she wouldn't of been able to get away with using biotics to remove specators from the seats she desired." Thane explained from his seat next to Hinata.

"Yeah. Last time she arrived five minutes before the fight and caused a riot." Jacob explaiend with a sigh.

"Best damn fight I've had in years." Grunt grinned.

Hinata was silent for a few minutes before she decided to learn a bit more about how Zero had become who he was and the best person to ask was right next to her.

"Thane?"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering, how you met Zero." she began.

"Ah. He hasn't told you?"

"No. He has spoken of a few things but not that."

"I see. He is rather secretive, even now." Thane nodded as he began telling what happened.

* * *

 _*Flashback*_

* * *

It was a cool October evening, a slight breeze in the air of Midgar as Thane crouched on a rooftop, his sights trained on the man that he was being paid to kill. He took a breath, about to pull the trigger when he heard a shot ring out and saw the man collapse on the ground with a bullet having gone through his leg."

" _No, three bullets."_ Thane thought as he saw the bullets ricochet off of the ground near the man. He wasn't on the ground long before a blond haired youth, no more than thirteen leapt down and grabbed the man, slamming him against the wall and apparently threatening him. The man shook his head in a negative fashion and the youth raised his gun, a triple barreled pistol, and smacked him across the face with it.

" _A robbery?"_ Thane thought with a frown but immediately discared the idea as the youth seemed to have no interest in the man's wallet or expensive watch on his wrist _"What is he after?"_

Thane observed for a few more minutes until the man finally caved and told the youth something and he nodded before dropping him and was about to talk some more as Thane heard the sounds of sirens approaching and decided to make his job simple. Aligning the shot he fired once and began to leave, knowing that it would go through his skull and end the life of this poor fool. Thane moved quickly for a few moments until he heard the sound of a gun being cocked behind him. Turning quickly he drew his pistol, the rifle secured on his back, and saw the blond youth standing there aiming his gun at him. Thane frowned at this youth and debated on what to do. He had no interest in taking his life as he already had another soul to pray for once he was away from the authorities but this youth seemed angry at him.

"You killed him." He accused, his accent surprising Thane.

" _Somewhere from the far east."_ he mused silently as the youth glared at him some more. Wasting no more words he fired his shot at him an d Thane knew that he wasn't a trained marksman as he easily avoided the shot and decided to move further away before the police were involved and one or both of them had to deal with simple men and women just doing their job in this grimy city. Turning he started to run, leaping over rooftops and keeping ahead of the youth with ease, though the youth was not easily lost as he ran, keeping a short distance away and not bothering to try and shoot him.

" _He isn't a fool despite his lack of training with his pistol."_

The chase continued for several seconds and at one point as Thane leapt a roof he turned and aimed his handgun at the youth as he jumped and took the shot in the shoulder with a cry of pain, dropping the several stories to the alley below. Nodding to himself Thane kept moving and was soon surpsied when the youth cut him off, the wound already healed and standing in front of the next ledge, cutting Thane off from his desired point of retreat.

"You won't get rid of me that easily."

"Perhaps next time I should just kill you and spare myself the trouble." Thane remarked.

"You're welcome to try, just don't be shocked when oyu find yourself shooting a cardboard box or some other random piece of garbage." He retorted and earned a confused look from the assassin.

"Why are you so determined to throw your life away young one?" Thane finally asked.

"You took the life of that man. I wasn't done interrogating him yet."

"And why would you need to interrogate him?"

"He had information on them. The ones that I seek."

"Who?"

"I don't know their name." He spat angrily "All I know is that they revived me after I died, and then trained me to be a living weapon. They succeeded but I will not serve them. I now hunt thost that sought to hurt my former home."

"Former? You did not return?"

"To what? Scare the crap out of my few precious people? The ones who buried and mourned me three years ago? That would just be a cruel joke." He snapped, his own hurt and anger becoming more visible.

"What is your ame young one?"

"I'm Na... Zero... My name is Zero." He said, changing his answer and Thane knew that he wasn't comfortable revealing what he was once called to anyone yet.

"Very well then Zero. You hunt a shadow organization is that right?"

"Yeah."

"What were they planning?"

"They wanted to conquer my homeland."

"I see." Thane nodded, now understanding what drove this youth. The same thing that had once driven the military man that he held so much respect for "Do you know how to use that gun that you carry?"

"Not really." He admitted "I know enough how to aim and hit someone, but not enough to be considered a marksman or anything."

"What about hand to hand combat?"

"I know some." Zero nodded.

"Show me." Thane ordered as he holstered his gun and charged Zero who blinked in shock before awkwardly holstering his gun and tried to strike the man, using some of his best combinations that were met with ease. Thane quickly got a grasp of this youth, who had been taught the basics and had them repeated until they were muscle memory. He was a fast youth and one to use surprise when he could, though he also had a surprising amount of strength those lean muscles and Thane was certain that if he bulked up at the cost of his speed that he could hit as hard as wrex. After a few moments Thane stopped Zero by simply knocking him on his ass and then aiming his handgun at him, right between his eyes and Zero blinked in shock at the sudden turn.

"You are very interesting Zero." Thane admitted

"Thanks?" He asked as Thane took a step back and let him stand up "What was that about?"

"I wanted to test you." he simply stated as he holstered his gun again "I see potential in you, and as an apology for killing your target before you could extract all the information from him allow me to take you on as my apprentice."

"Apprentice?" Zero asked with some indignation "I really am not interested in following around some killer."

"I may kill but not for myself." Thane replied "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Thane Krios, and I am the best assassin in the world."

"Assassin?" Zero asked, now intrigued.

"Yes. I work for The Guild. I am one of it's most powerful members and if you wish you may become my apprentice and I will teach you everything that I know, make you one of the most feared assassins to ever walk this earth and help you get your vengeance on this shadow organization."

"So I would join this Guild as well?"

"Indeed."

Zero frowned at this for a few seconds before nodding "Fine, I'll give it a try."

"There is no trying. You will either commit with everything that you have, or you will walk away now." Thane warned. Now Zero blinked at the harsh tone and seemed to come to some kind of internal realization before speaking.

"I will be your apprentice, I will be a member of The Guild. And from these things I will get my vengeance on the shadow organization for what they have done to me and countless other innocent people." Zero said, his eyes burning with new determination.

"That is good." Thane smiled as he motioned for him to follow "We will return to The Guild and begin your training in earnest."

* * *

 _*Flashback End*_

* * *

"He was trained by me for two years until I was certain that he was ready. He was a fast learner, and mastered arts in days that would normally take months to master. He is my truest legacy and I know that he is destined for great things one day." Thane smiled.

"That was very accurate, especially for how much time has passed." Hinata noted.

"He has a photographic memory." Jacob replied "Remembers every little detail, makes it really useful for different jobs that require that kind of thing."

"Interesting." Hinata nodded "That isn't a skill that we see very often in my home."

"It's a rare talent across the world." Thane admitted as he looked down towards the sand covered arena and nodded "It's about to begin."

* * *

Down in the arena Sephiroth stood, using a spell to magnify his voice so that everyone could hear him.

"Good morning one and all. Today we are here to witness a Duel of Ascension between Tier 3 Rank 77 Mercer Fray and Tier 4 Rank 2 Zero. This is a duel to the death, no holds barred. Gnetlemen enter the arena!" Sephiroth exclaimed. With that the two men entered from opposite sides, Zero's hood up and his hand twitching over the gun as he started towards his opponent. Mercer Gray was wearing the dark leather armor that he had worn to the meeting and the sword and dagger at his sides as well. Ihe walked with an arrogance tha seemed to indicate that he didn't think that losing was even a possibility. The two faced wach other for a moment before Sephiroth took a step back and gave the signal to begin. Zero struck with lightning speed, firing at Mercer Fray with practiced ease, however the man had moved to the side, just dodging the bullets and grabbing a bottle that had been strapped to his back, draining the liquid with ease.

"You're dead now, you little bastard." He laughed as he faded from sight and Zero now frowned at this turn of events. Invisibility potions were extremely rare outside of Dovahkiin's land of Skyrim, and if Mercer Fray had one with him now than Zero knew that this man would likely have a few other surprise with him. Closing his eyes Zero waited and listened and leapt to the side, avoding Mercer Fray's sword as it haad swung through the air where he had been standing. Zero moved a little ways back and focused his ears for the telltale signs that Mercer Fray was close and grinned as he picked out the shallow breathingon his left hand side. Twisting he fired his gun once and grinned more when he heard the roar of pain as the bullets tore through the man. Zero now focused on the source of the shout and fired two more times, each a hit as he saw the blood falling from the invisible body and watched as the invisibility wore off, revealing Mercer Fray bleeding out of his left leg, left shoulder and his stomach where the first shot had hit him.

"Die." Zero simply stated as he fired the last shot before Mercer could react and the bullets took him between the eyes, leaving nothing recognizable of the head. There was a moment of stunned silence before applause began and Zero could hear Jack cheering obscenities.

"The winner is Zero!" Spehiroth declared "By the old laws he is now Rank 3 Tier 77, and be given all of Mercer Fray's possessions."

"Thanks." Zero nodded as he walked towards the locker room that he had emerged from and was soon back in the hallways where Than and Hianta were waiting for him.

"That was great Zero." Hinata smiled getting a nod from the cowled mercenary as he looked at Thane.

"I used too many shots didn't I?" he asked.

"What do you think?" Thane asked with a knowing smile.

"I think that after the second shot I should have waited for the invisibility to wear off then finish him. The first shot may have been a fluke but the second would have confirmed it." Zero stated calmly.

"Very good. Other then that it was a perfect performance." Thane sated.

"Thank you Master." Zero said as he bowed to him, getting a sigh from Thane.

"Well go look at Mercer Fray's old quarters. Odds are good that he has accumulated some treasures that you can sell to increase your own accounts." Thane remarked as he walked off "I will have Tali meet you there in about an hour."

"Thank you Master." Zero nodded as he motioned for Hinata to come with him as he walked towards the living quarters and quickly got directions to Mercer Fray's room. Walking in Zero blinked at how extravagant the room was and had a feeling that his accound was going to increase greatly.

"This is incredible." Hinata stated in awe.

"Yeah. Let's start sorting this crap out." Zerosighed as he removed his cloak and began looking through it all. There were lots of extravagant clothes that Zero had Hinata folding and placing in a pile to be sold, and plenty of unopened wine bottles that Zero knew nothing about but was willing to bet that they were worht a few hundred credits a piece. At one point he stopped at a shelf and stared at two giant diamonds, each slightly larger than a prize winning watermelon at a county fair.

"What are those?" Hinata asked, completely stunned at the size of the two gems.

"I am not sure, but these are likely a prize of his and likely how he got his position." Zero stated "I'll sell them."

"I don't blame you. What on earth would you do with those gigantic things?" Hinata asked herself as she went back to sorting out more of the fine clothes. Zero examined the rest of the items on the shelves amd moved towards the weapon racks in the back. Most were simple weapons that Zero personally didn't care for, swords and daggers mostly and while some were excellently crafted he had no use for them really though he did eye a few of the swords before placing them back to be sold. It wasn't until he stopped at a flass case and stared inside of it with a look of intrigue. Opening the lid he removed a sword, pale blue in color from the blade to the end of the pommel with gold worked into the crossguard and onto the handle. It was well balanced and he could feel a coldness coming from it as though the blade had just been pulled out of a tundra though this only seemed to apply to the blade itself.

"What do you have there?" A voice asked from the door and Zero turned to see Tail and Garrus walking in. Garrus was the one who had spoken, walking directly towards Zero with the grace of a natural predator. His armor was similar to Shepard's except his was a blue color and made from adifferent material than most, with the way the light was absorbed on it. His most distinguishing feature though was his scarred right side of his face, clearly caused by an explosion.

"I'm sorry, did we interrupt a date?" Zero asked with a grin as he saw Garrus start to blush and Tali got a little fidgety.

""No." Garrus finally said as he walked over and patted Zero on the shoulder "You thinking about keeping that?"

Maybe. Guns are all well and good, but a sword is always useful." Zero mused as he examined it some more until he found the name engraved into the base of the blade "Chillrend."

"A good name for an enchanted sword." Garrus nodded.

"Enchanted?" Hianta asked.

"A form of magic. A mage will craft spells into weapons and armor to increase their power and make them even more dangerous." Tali explained "From the name it likely has an ice enchantment on it. So my little fox, what are we selling today?"

"Just about everything." Zero stated as they started really assessing the value of the items.

"The clothes will likely be about fifty credits each since they are used, given the amount there and you are looking at close to 4000 crdits." Tali began as she moved to the wine "The wine are all of varying years and vintages but Ican likely give you an estimate of close to 10,000 credits since I can see some rare ones in there. The weapons are all in good shape and some of them are made from better materials. The iron swords are about 40 credits and the iron daggers are only 20. The steel swords are going to be worth about 75 credits and the daggers will be 35. I see some silver weapons here and those tend to for 100 credits to 600 for the larger ones." Tali paused when he showed her the diamons and he could tell even through the suit that her mought was hanging open, since Garrus's was as well.

"This is the big money item." Zero stated "I'm selling both of them."

"BOTH?!" Tali shouted as she tried to figure out what to do with them "Do you know what those are?"

"Diamonds." Zero replied bluntly.

"Those are the Eyes of the Falmer. These gems were used as the eyes in a giant statue to a long lost kingdom. They are worth millions." Garrus explained "You sell those and you are going to be looking at one large bank account."

"Good. I have some resupplying to do. How long will it take to see everything?" he asked.

"Give me two days." Tali replied "Most of this stuff can be sold on the island but those gems are going to be much harder to sell and I will need a day or two to get a definite price on them."

"Fair enough. You have my account number. Let me know when the money is in." Zero replied as he started to leave, taking Chillrend with him "Im keeping this. It could prove useful later on."

"You're planning on having a different way of fighting Kain the Dragoon aren't you?" Hinata asked as they left.

"More than him. There are likely plenty of other people in the shadow organization that will have some kind of defense for guns, so what I am doing is simply planning ahead and finding ways around this kind of problem." Zero explained "And an enchanted sword is a good place to start."

"If you say so." Hinata shrugged as they walked away from the living quarters.


	8. Chapter 8

**Final Days At The Guild**

"Bartender, another round!" Garrus shouted as the rest of the group cheered in celebration of Zero's advancement. Shepard, Grunt, Jacob, Garrus and Zero were currently at the largest of the bars in The Guild and in the process of drinking the place dry.

"Sure you can handle it Garrus?" Zero chuckled "You're looking a little green there."

"You're one to talk, you have had twice as much as I've had!" Grunt roared in laughter.

"That's cause despite all your talk you are a lightweight." Zero countered, getting a few barks of laughter from Shepard and Jacob.

"Lightweight?! I'll show you! Bartender bring out the Ryncol!" Grunt shouted to the poor bartender who had already sent a waitress with the next three rounds of shots.

"While we wait for that." Shepard chuckled as he grabbed his shot glass "Down the hatch boys!"

"Down the hatch!" they replied as they downed their respective shots.

"Thisss iss sssome good shtuff here." Jacob slurred.

"You're done man." Garrus sighed as he motioned towards the bouncer "He's had enough."

The man nodded as he helped the dark skinned man up just as the Ryncol arrived. Grunt and Zero just grinned as they each grabbed their respective glass and downed it in one go. The two stared at each other for a second before Grunt just collapsed onto the table, unconscious.

"Get him too." Zero chuckled as he looked at the two other men "And then there were three."

"You aren't going to out drink us." Shepard warned "We've got years on you."

"And that is why you will lose. You're bodies can't tolerate as much liquor as I can." Zero counterd with a coky grin.

"That sounds like a challenge." Garrus chuckled with a glint in his eyes "The usual bet?"

"I'm in." Zero nodded.

"Fine. Last man standing wins the pool." Shepard sighed as he grabbed his drink "Let the game begin."

* * *

Early the next morning Hinata was awoken by the sound of someone banging on the door. Standing up she opened the door to see Tali and an annoyed looking Liara there.

"What's going on?" Hinata asked.

"Our men decided to have a drinking game last night." Tali sighed while shaking her head "The bartender sent us word to come and get them. We could use the help with Zero."

"Of course." Hinata nodded as she closed the door behind her and followed the two women towards the bar "Does this happen often?"

"Not really. Normally Shepard and Garrus know when to stop. But when Zero is there and challenges their masculinity they start drinking like they're 21 again. Usually Thane helps us but we figured you would like the chance to see Zero when he's drunk, for blackmail purposes." Liara explained while shaking her head at the thought "It's unethical but it generally pays off."

"I bet." Hianta chuckled.

After a few minutes they reached the bar to find that all the other patrons were gone. Garrus was passed out on the floor and Shepard was barely conscious as he wobbled in his bar stool. Zero was clearly drunk and singing off key, while in front of him and the other two spots were a massive pile of glasses, enough for everyone in Tier 3 to have taken a shot and then some.

"Now everybody's died, so until our tears are dry, we'll drink and drink and drink and drink and then we'll drink some more! We'll dance and sing and fight until the early morning light, then we'll throw up, pass out, wake up and then go drinking once again!" Zero sang as he wobbled in his own stool, grinning at the two older men who each had one full shot glass left in front of them.

"Come on Shepard." Liara said as she helped him up and started moving him towards the door "Let's get you to bed."

"Will you and... and what's her name... the one with the uh..." Shepard mumbled.

"We will both be there if you just behave." Liara assured him as they started to leave.

"Come on Garrus." Tali sighed as she pulled him up, gaining a grunt of some kind acknowledgment from the silver haired man as she helped him walk.

"Zero, I think you've had enough." Hinata said as she walked over to the blond.

"Hinata!" He exclaimed drunkenly as he managed to somehow get off of the bar stool without falling over "I'm glad you're here!"

"I'm sure you are." Hinata nodded as she gently grabbed his shoulder and started to walk him towards the door.

"Take it out of Grunt's account!" Zero shouted to the bartender who only nodded as he began cleaning off the table. With that Hinata slowly led Zero back towards his room as the mercenary continued to talk.

"You are a good girl Hinata, helping me out like this." Zero stated, the occasional slurred word slipping out "I don't deserve someone like you around me. I mean... you're the next head of the Hyuga clan. A great shinobi and a beautiful woman. Yet here you are with some scum merc who can't even manage basic human interactions outside of this den of thieves and killers."

"What are you talking about?" Hinata asked, very confused as to what he was saying.

"I saw the way you looked at me when you saw who I really was... I know that look. Seen Liara give it to Shepard, Tali to Garrus. Hell I think Jack and Miranada have given that look to Shepard too." Zero rambled "You liked me, hell probably loved me before I died. You saw me back from the dead and you didn't doubt for a second that it was really me, that I somehow had come back from the dead... Well you were right on that account I guess... Hell you're probably right on all of them... I'm just some cowardly piece of garage merc that couldn't grow a pair and go home to face his loved ones. I ran like a coward... You don't deserve a coward in your life... You deserve a great guy... A guy that can really complete you... Not some..." Zero tailed off at this point, seeming to sink into himself as his downward spiral continued.

"Naruto." Hinata sighed, trying to find the right words for this "You aren't a coward. You stayed away because you didn't want to hurt any of us that you had left behind. You went after the people that planned on hurting your precious people even if it meant that you were going to die in the process. That isn't being a coward, that is being a selfless person. You may not be the same person that I knew, and had a crush on when I was a little girl, but you are still a person worthy of not only mine but everyone's respect."

"So you did have feelings for me..." He trailed off "And I was a blind fool to busy chasing after Sakura... Don't know why you would be interested in me either..."

"Naruto, I had a crush on you because you were always so determined and brave. You didn't care what anyone thought or did but instead had a smile on your face and did what you could to earn their attention, even if it got you into trouble." Hinata replied. This was met with silence that continued until they reached Zero's room and Hianta laid him on the bed to see that he was still concsious but just drawn into himself. Laying down on the couch Hianta thought on his words and came to the conclusion that this "Zero" was his new mask to hide from the world. And like the mask of happiness that he had worn back home in the village this one was built upon truths as well, which made it harder to discreen from the lies. He did want revenge against the shadow organization but the cold and calculating part was meant to mislead. Feeling her eyes growing heavy Hinata decided to sleep on the matter and bring it up to him at a later date, see how correct she was.

* * *

The next morning Zero awoke with a grumble, feeling the fading effects of too much alcohol. Shuffling into the bathrooom he went through both his morning rituals but also his hangover cure, which consisted of a special mixture that he kept in a bottle in the medicine cabinet. Once finished he scanned the room and realized that Thane wasn't there so he knew that it hadn't been him to have taken him back to his room since the older assassin stayed to make sure that he ws alright, despite the fact that he always was and generally recovered from the hangover faster than whomever he had been drinking with the night before. He also knew that it wasn't Jack since she would have written profanities on his face once he fell asleep, and Miranda would have taken his hangover cure to make sure that he didn't do that again. Frowning as he thought about who it could have been he glanced at Hinata and his subconscious told him that it had been her.

"Hope I didn't say too much last night..." he muttered to himself as he quietly opened the door to his room and made his way towards the markets where he intended to resupply before he returned to the Elemental Nations. The Merchants Hall was a gigantic cavern with multiple levels meant to house the hundreds of vendors that were represented from around the world. Zero made his way through the booths before heading towards the wall of the cave where the higher end vendros had actual full time shops. Opening the door he let his gaze wander the familiar store until he spotted the young girl behind the counter.

"Welcome to Black Cat Armaments." She said without looking up from the pistol she was adjusting the sights on.

"Some greeting Eve." Zero chuckled as he walked up to the counter.

"Zero!" She exclaimed as she turned her emerald eyes to him in astonishment and joy. She had grown a few inches since the last time he had been in, though she still wore her black dress that really brought out her blond hair.

"Good to see you Eve. Sven here?" Zero asked.

"Yeah. Dad! Zero's here!" she shouted towards the back.

"I heard!" he shouted back "I'll be up there in just a second!"

"So how have you been?" Eve asked.

"Working, as usual." Zero shrugged "I've been in the Elemental Nations actually."

"Wow. The ones that are pretty much ignorant to the rest of the world right?"

"No ripping on my homeland now." Zero chided with a smirk "They have a good thing going there and if the Daimyou's wanted them to have more interactions with the other nations then they would have."

"I guess. So what's it like going back there?"

"Surreal." he sighed "I was gone for more than six years. Lot changed, and a lot stayed the same. Hardest thing is keeping who I am hidden from everyone there. One wrong move and I'm busted, then likely to be locked up in their version of an insane asylum."

"I'm sorry." Eve said as she patted his arm.

"Good to see you Zero." Sven said as he walked into the room from the workshop that they had in the back. H ewas just shy of six feet tall, wearing a beige suit with a blue dress shirt. On his head was a fedora matching the color of his suit with a matching blue band around it, resting atop of his mint green hair that also partially covered his eye patched right eye.

"Sven." Zero nodded as he shook the older man's hand "Always a pleasure to see you."

"I trust you're not just here to chat." Sven remarked with a knowing smile "Word has it that you are looking at a long term employment in a soon to be war zone."

"Word gets around quick." Zero chuckled "Elemental Nations, working fo Hidden Leaf Village. Shadow Organization is finally making their move there and I intend to stop them, or give them hell before they kill me."

"I swear you have a death wish messing with them." Sven sighed "So what can I get you?"

"I have resupliers heading for Hidden Leaf so I won't need as many of the standard munitions that you sell, so what have you got specialty-wise?"

"Plenty depending on what you need." Sven replied as he opened the display case and pulled out acouple of different bullets with different colored bands around the the casings to mark them "These yellow ones are one of my newest and most dangerous types of bullets. The head of the bullet is filled with hydrochloric acid. Will eat through everything except plastic and when the bullet hits the plastic casing ruptures and acid goes to work. Takes some time time to work so not really useful to kill someone in a fight, though it does cause a great distraction."

"Sounds good. Have any for M-98 Widow's?"

"Only a few. I can send you more if you like them." Sven promised.

"Give me one box of those for the widow and three for a standard revolver." Zero nodded "Does this work on adamite armor as well?"

"Eve and Sven both blinked at the question before Sven spoke.

"No guarantees. Adamite is some tough stuff and has been known to be able to stop most types of damage, but there is a chance that the acid will eat through it or at least damage it." Sven shrugged "Where did that question come from?"

"Ran intoan enemy with adamite armor. Bullets were useless against it. And while a blade through the gaps of the armor is doable I'd prefer to keep him at a distance if possible." Zero explained.

"I see. Well the next one is this." Sven continued, showing Zero the blue banded bullet "Cyro rounds. Shepard buys these quite often to help incapacitate his opponents. Liquid nitroglycerin inside them that starts to freeze the target when they're hit. Enough of these and you have a statue on your hands."

"Three for each." Zero stated. Sven nodded as he jotted down the information to a sheet of paper before picking up a green banded bullet.

"This little beauty is one of my master pieces. Inside is a small EMP bomb that goes off when the bullet hits." Sven explained "Short range on it, but fire a few of these and you can shut down an enemy's comms, disable security measures, and take out any high tech gear that your enemy may have."

"Impressive. Outside help?"

"Some. Got in touch with some scientists from Sur'Kesh who had the basis for this technology but didn't have much of a use for it. Helped with the designs and they get a share of the profits." Sven explained.

"I see. Give me one box for the pistol and three for the rifle."

"I've managed to improve on the incinerary rounds so they can cause combustion on impact." Sven stated showing him the red bullet.

"Three for each."

"Finally is this." Sven nodded holding the white bullet "I managed to imrpove on the burst bullet that I designed, making these even more potent. Larger blast radius when they hit the ground and guaranteed to kill if they enter an enemy's torso."

"Impressive. Three for each." Zero stated with a grin.

"Got it." Sven said as he finished jotting down the rest "Need anything else?"

"Maybe. Let me take a look around and make up my mind." Zero replied.

"No rush." Sven said "Even can ring you up once you're done."

"Working on something new back there?" Zero chuckled.

"A few projects here and there. Vongola family is looking for some new types of munitions and have an open contract going. I land it and I could put Eve through any university in any nation." Sven explained.

"Those EMP rounds would work." Zero noted.

"Maybe, but I don't want to just rely on that. Quantity it it's own quality." Sven chuckled as he started towards his workshop again "Good seeing you again Zero."

"Same." the blond merc nodded as he started browsing the shelves and racks, looking over some of the various items.

"I heard about your promotion." Eve remarked as she walked around the store with him "Congrats."

"Thanks. It's the only reason I can affortd this shopping trip." Zero chuckled.

"Mercer had that much money in his account?"

"No. Barely anything left in there. Sold a lot of the stuff to Tali, and everything except the big money item was sold by that evening."

"Why not that last one?"

"You try finding someone that wants to buy two diamonds that are bigger than most prize winning watermelons. That tends to be a very select clientele."

Eve only blinked in shock at this as Zero stopped and examined a few of the light weight body armors. He knew that his was top of the line, modeled after Thane's, it was meant to repel most munitions and bladed weapons. Though it was nowhere near as strong as the armor that Shepard and the rest of the male members of Shepard's crew wore since they favored the front lines.

"Need new body armor?" Eve asked.

"Not for myself. Master said that this should last me for another few years before I need to get a new set." He replied.

"Then who?" Eve asked with a frown. Before Zero could answer the door opened and in walked Hinata.

"Zero." She said as she walked over.

"Hinata. Surprised you're up, especially sicne you had to come and get me last night." Zero noted as he ran an eye over her quickly before looking back at the body armors now having a better idea of what size to get her.

"I am a shinobi. I can work on minimal sleep when necessary." She replied.

"Zero, who is she?" Eve asked, a slight huff in her voice that Hinata caught instantly and noted that Zero seemed to have missed it.

"Sorry. Eve this is Hinata Hyuga. She's from the village where I am working. She came with me to work out a contract between her home and The Guild. Hinata let me introduce Eve Vollfied, she is the daughter of the owner of this shop, though she tends to run the business while her dad makes the munitions in the back." Zero explained.

"It's a pleasure." Hinata smiled. Eve only nodded as she stared at Hianta and seemed to be assessing her.

"Hinata, since you're here try a few of these one." Zero stated as he handed Hianta a few different light body armors.

"Why?" Hinata asked in confusion.

"Odds are good that wou will be working with me quite often when we get back to the village and I don't want to see you getting gunned down. These should protect you from the worst of the attacks." Zero explained.

"Oh. Isn't it illegal?"

"No. Weapons are but armor isn't." Zero replied "It's a loophole that merchants use."

"Ok." Hinata nodded as she spotted the fitting room and walked towards it with the small pile of body armors in her arms.

"I'll help her." Eve stated as she walked with the kunoichi, getting a nod from Zero how continued browsing the shop. In the back Hinata had removed her sweatshirt and revealed the mesh undershirt that was meant to protect her from bladed weapons. Eve only started at her with a growing frown before she spoke.

"You can keep that on. Adds extra protection."

"Of course." hianta nodded as she grabbed on of the armors, feeling it's weight in her hands before starting to put it on with Eve's help "So does Zero shop here regularly?"

"Yes." Eve nodded "He's been coming here for years. Says we sell the best bullets. His master and his associates also shop here. They provide a good amount of business."

"I see." Hinata muttered as she looked in the mirror and started moving her body to see hot it felt before shaking her head at it "This is to restricting. I wouldn't be ablt to fight while wearing it."

"Ok, try a different size. It's a good fit in the chest but the shoulders were too much." Eve replied as Hinata started to remove it "So how long have you known Zero?"

"As Zero... It's only been a month." Hinata answered.

"As Zero?" Eve frowned.

"I knew him before he left the village." Hinata explained "Back when his dream was to become the next leader of the village, the Hokage."

"So you grew up together."

"Not really. We knew each other but I was too shy to try and get close to him. I always cared about him thought..."

Now Eve was close to scowling at the girl before remember that she was a ustomer, even if Zero was the one who was going to be paying, and that Sven would be mad if she ruined a sale because of her emotions. Hinata howevrer had caught the face she had made and now knew that the blond had a crush on Zero. Finishing clasping the armor into place she nodded as she started to move and found it wasn't as restricting as the last one and the weight wasn't too heavy for her either.

"This should do." Hinata nodded as she turned and made eye contract with Eve how nodded her head while keeping her face a mask of calm professionalism.

"Good. We can ring you up at the counter." Eve replied as they left the room.

"So how old are you Eve?" Hianta asked.

"14." Eve stated calmly "I've already finished the basic schooling in a few of the more advanced countries though."

"I see." Hinata nodded "So you've known Zero since you were 11?"

"That's right."

"He must be a hard person to get to open up."

"He can be. He has a one track mind and is determined to see whatever he focuses on through. At the same time though he works in weird ways, doing things that you wouldn't suspect. He is hard to read sometiems but if you know hime like a few different people do he is an open book." Eve noted, sending Hinata a smug look.

"Then I guess you know that he sometimes regrets not going back home when he had the chance instead of chasing after the Shadow Organization." hinata remarked, getting a momentary look of shock from Eve.

"Who told you that?" she asked.

He did." Hinata answered "And while I wish he had come back I am also proud that he didn't at the same time. He is doing all of this to protect the people that he left behind, so he hasn't changed as much as some people would like to think."

Eve blinked at this before reaching the counter where Zero was waiting, having grabbed some gloves for Hianta as well, with the gloves having armor plating on the back of them to help deflect blades when she was using her Gentle Fist. He had also picked up some repair kits for his guns and parts to modify them as well.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yeah." Hinata nodded.

"So what do we owe you?" Zero asked Eve.

"The body armor is going to be 9750 credits, the gloves will be 100, the repair kits are 50 credits each so that makes it 200 there. The mods are 500 each and you have four there as well, so another 2000. The bullets are going to cost you 15,000. So that brings your total up to 27,050 credits. Eve replied not even pausing to do the math.

"Ok. Take it out of my account." Zero stated as Eve walked off to clear the transaction. It took a few minutes but she came back and nodded to him that it had been cleared.

"Good luck out there." Eve smiled.

"I don't need luck." Zero chuckled "I've been trained by the best and am too damn cautious to die now."

"Still..." Eve trailed off.

"I'll be back Eve. No worries." he smiled as he walked off "See you later."

"It was a pleaure." Hinata nodded as she left and followed Zero. For a short time Zero showed Hinata a few of the shops to see if there was anything that she might be interested in purchasing for herself or anyone else. After she told him no he began leader her towards a different area of The Guild, this one deeper into the caverns though exceptionally well lit. As they approached a door they could hear a conversation already going inside.

"But is it possible?" A woman asked.

"Perhaps, though mental degradation would begin after a week or two. Could be extended if the process was slow and subtle and would see the signs of this after a monsth instead. Taking control of someone's mind like that always damages the brain, and if their knowledge is what they are aftet then this would be a pointless endavor." a man replied.

"This is troubling." the woman sighed. At this point Zero opened the door to rveal Miranda standing in her form fitting black and white jumpsuit talking to the orange haired mad scientist that was Mordin.

"Ah Zero, pleasure to see you. Heard you had returned to The Guild and you were promoted. Most excellent." Mordin smiled as the blond walked in.

"Zero." Miranda nodded as she turned her gaze to Hinata "And this is the guest you brought I see."

"Hinata Hyuga." Hinata said, offering her hand.

"Miranda Lawson." she nodded accepting the offered hand "I'd love to stay and chat but I have things to arrange before we leave."

"Of course." Hinata replied as the dark haired beauty walked away.

"Hinata, let me introduce Mordin Slus, our personal mad scientist." Zero smirked.

"Please, mad would imply that I was insane, or had some other mental defect. I am simply a scientist that does not follow the same moral code that most other scientists seem to follow. Not to be confused with the barbarians that hurt untold numbers of people in the name of science and progress. Disgusting, muh better options available during testing." Mordin rambled, pausing after taking a deep breath "Subject can be discussed more later. You are likely here for a reason, so what can I do for you Zero?"

"Checking to see if you have anything new that might interest me. And this was also a good chance for you to meet Hinata sincei t is very difficult to get you out of your lab." Zero replied, his smirk still in place.

"Not difficult, just need proper reason to be leaving research." Mordin countered.

"Mordin, what was Miranda asking about?" Hinata asked.

"Something that her former employers may be using." Mordine stated "The process has been dubbed Indoctrination, a subtle and very dangerous form of mind control that slowly changes the view point of the subject so that they become fiercely loyal to whomever is their target. This can make the most reluctant ally into a fanatic if done properly. There are drawbacks from this sort of thing, mental degradation, paranoia, hallucinations, just to namea few. The process is very risky as it can also be used to place sleeper agents into organizations and destroy them from the inside out."

"How is this possible?" Hinata asked in shock and horror.

"Through a variety of means that target the subject's subconscious. Building layout, angle of walls, noise at varying levels that we can barely hear. These are the subtle ways of doing this, and can result in thralldom lasting longer then any other method. Faster means bombard the brain with these noises and images as well to overwhelm them and in the end it destroys the brain, leaving them as mindless shells, completely obedient but only capable of performing basic tasks." Mordin explained.

"Why was she asking about this?" Zero frowned "Shepard said that the data had been destroyed on it."

"It had been. Was there when Shepard destroyed the last known copies. However possible that Cerberus managed to make copies of the information before Shepard destroyed it, allowing them ot expand upon this and use it. Miranda was asking due to her informants that remained inside Cerberus had gone dark and had not reported for quite some time. She was concerned about htem especially when she checked for their deaths and found that they were still alive and serving at their posts more diligently than before, but not sending reports. Concern understandable, though odds of Indoctrination are very slim."

"But still possible... I'll talk to her aboutt what Cerberus has been up to when we leave. I assume you know that you are coming with us for the Elemental Nations." Zero remarked, changing the subject.

"Indeed. Be good to see new places, meet new people and learn new ideas. Could give perspective on a variety of issues." Mordin nodded "Most interested in people. Understand that Hinata is from the Elemental Nations."

"I am."

"Hmm... Eyes, pale iris's though pupil still dilates, meaning not blind. Genetic, passed down through a family tree and likely kept pure in ensure that it continues to appear in that family if this is considered a good omen. Build suggests active life style, lean and strong muscles, likely an agile and elusive opponent." Mordin pasued as he inhaled through his nose "Smell of nature, trees and fresh soil. Likely from a very fertile land. Home is therefore likely in Fire Country. Headband on neck indicates loyalty to a certain village. Meant to identify for friend and foe alike... A leaf symbo, Village Hidden in The Leavs is your home, and likely a trained shinobi."

Hinata blinked as the man listed off each note he had made on her as Zero chuckled.

"Ok Mordine, that's enough assessing." Zero chided who turned and looked at the blond.

"My apologies, got carried away. First time meeting someon that has lived in the Elemental Nations their whole life." Mordin replied.

"Just don't start experimenting on her like you did me." Zero said.

"He experimented on you?" Hinata asked in shock.

"All at his request. Concerned about what they may or may not have done to him during the revival process. Must admit, Doctor Hojo did excellent work. Combination of Lazarus serum and electro-therapy to restrart heart and brain activity ingenious combination. Good balance must have been achived otherwise Zero would be a brain dead vegetable or still just regaining function of his body."

"Lazarus serum? What is that?" Hinata asked.

"Cerberus ceration. Was created to help revive Shepard when he almost died during first Collector attack. Revitalizes the body, creating new cells that replace old and damged ones in rapid order. Includes brain cells and other cells that would normally not be replaced after sustaining injuries. Doesn't work on preexisting scar tissue however it does repair everything else. Ingenious creation on their part, and the Shadow Organization expanded upon it once Cerberus joined them."

"So Mordin, anything new to show me?" Zero asked.

"Always have something new, but the better question would be if I have anything that may be of use to you." Mordin smirked as he motioned for them to follow him towards the various tables and cases that held his various experiments. They included everything from viruses and other medical apparatus to weapons. One such weapon Zero picked up and examined it with some mild interest.

"Oddly heavy given it's size." Zero remarked as he held the handgun.

"New design. Called Scorpion. Weight comes from the appeartus built into it that creates the projectile."

"I notice you said projectile instead of bullet." Hinata noted.

"Indeed. Doesn't shoot standard bullets or the modified ones that Shepard and Zero favor. Instead it creates an adhesive coated sphere that will explode after a few moments. Excellent for sabotage and killing enemies quickly." Mordin explained.

"What's it use to make these?" Zero asked even more intrigued now.

"It uses a combination of chemicals that I have mixed together to create the explosive as well as the adhesive." Mordin replied "Still testing as am unsure how well this would work in combat."

"I can understand that." Zero nodded "It's a good idea but the ammunition could be a problem. Not even considering the weight. Might want to consider a ligher casing around the gun if the appartus is going to be so heavy."

"Have considered changing to a different type of plastic but am unsure how this wold effect the range and firing rate. More testing needed before alterations can be made." Mordin nodded.

"Agreed." Zero nodded as he handed back the gun "When you're done testing let me know, might be useful to have one of those."

"I will keep you in mind. Shepard also expressed interest in these as well so will continue modifying." Mordin nodded. A few moments later the pair of them were on their way out, Hinata thoughtful over all that Mordin had shown them and what he had said about Zero. Zero was his usualsilent self s they walked though the weheels in his mind were turning in regards to some of the items that Mordin had shown him. The rest of the day was spent uietly and the enxt morning they were aboard the Normandy and on their way back to Fire Country.


End file.
